Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The use of sexual violence in armed conflict is a war crime and the use of sexual violence as part of a widespread, systematic attack directed against any civilian population is a crime against humanity. That definition includes rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution and any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population.

As a country and as a global community of nations, we have decided these acts constitute the absolute worst crimes against the whole of humanity. It saddens me to stand here today to speak on what has been going on in the Middle East. I can think of no group of people, no regime, which mistreats women to a greater extent than Islamic State in Iraq. To say that a grim future awaited you if you were a Christian or Yazidi woman in a territory invaded by Daesh would be a gross understatement. The United Nations found that Islamic State insurgents carried out mass executions, abducted women and girls as sex slaves and used child soldiers in Iraq. It found gross human rights violations and violence of an increasingly sectarian nature against groups including Christians, Yazidis and Shiite Muslims. Women from the Yazidi and Christian communities were transported to Syria to be given to ISIL fighters as a reward or to be sold as sex slaves. The New York Times reported:

The systematic rape of women and girls from the Yazidi religious minority has become deeply enmeshed in the organization and the radical theology of the Islamic State … since the group announced it was reviving slavery as an institution.

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The trade in Yazidi women and girls has created a persistent infrastructure, with a network of warehouses where the victims are held, viewing rooms where they are inspected and marketed, and a dedicated fleet of buses used to transport them.

I, along with the rest of the government, deplore this horrific persecution of women from religious, ethnic and other minority groups, including Christians, Yazidis, Shiite Muslims and others, at the hands of ISIL. We unanimously and wholly condemn the egregious abuses committed by ISIL in Iraq and Syria, including beheadings, sexual exploitation of women and girls, rapes and massacres, and we continue to support all efforts to bring ISIL to justice for its heinous atrocities.

The best, most effective, way to stop ISIL from perpetrating crimes against women is to stop ISIL. We are fully committed. We have made and continue to make a major contribution to the global coalition to defeat ISIL. We are making a significant military contribution. As of 6 August 2017, ISIL has lost over 78 per cent of the territory it once held in Iraq and 58 per cent of the territory it once held in Syria. Nearly five million people have been liberated, and two million Iraqis have returned to their homes. ISIL is losing this war.

But military tactics alone will not be enough. To stop ISIL trading women of Christian, Yazidi and Shiite Muslim faith, or other minority ethnic groups being traded like cattle and sold at auction, we have been working with the coalition to cut off their financing, stem the flow of foreign fighters willing to join them and suppress their pernicious messaging. With the threat of defeat looming, fighters might seek to return to their countries of origin. Sadly, these include Australia. But actions have consequences, and fighters from whichever country they hail from who have chosen to support this group of barbarians will be judged for their atrocities. Anyone fighting with, providing material support to or associating with ISIL or other terrorist groups is committing a serious crime and will be subject to the law.

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