The state of human rights in territories controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has been criticised by many political, religious and other organisations and individuals. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights has stated that ISIL "seeks to subjugate civilians under its control and dominate every aspect of their lives through terror, indoctrination, and the provision of services to those who obey".
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UN determinations
In November 2014 the UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic said that ISIL was committing crimes against humanity and that the group "seeks to subjugate civilians under its control and dominate every aspect of their lives through terror, indoctrination, and the provision of services to those who obey." In October 2015, the UN Human Rights Council "strongly condemn[ed] the terrorist acts and violence committed against civilians by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Daesh), al-Nusrah Front and other extremist groups, and their continued gross, systematic and widespread abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law, and reaffirm[ed] that terrorism, including the actions of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Daesh), cannot and should not be associated with any religion, nationality or civilization."
Statements of human rights groups
A report by Human Rights Watch in November 2014 accused ISIL militants in Libya's Derna of war crimes and human rights abuses and of terrorizing residents. Human Rights Watch documented three apparent incidents in which captives were killed and at least ten public floggings by the Islamic Youth Shura Council, which joined ISIL in November. It also documented the beheading of three Derna residents and dozens of seemingly politically motivated assassinations of judges, public officials, members of the security forces and others. Sarah Leah Watson, Director of HRW Middle East and North Africa, said: "Commanders should understand that they may face domestic or international prosecution for the grave rights abuses their forces are committing."
Amnesty International has held ISIL responsible for the ethnic cleansing of ethnic and religious minority groups in northern Iraq on a "historic scale". It issued a special report in late 2014 describing how ISIL has "systematically targeted non-Arab and non-Sunni Muslim communities, killing or abducting hundreds, possibly thousands, and forcing more than 830,000 others to flee the areas it has captured since 10 June 2014". Among these people are Assyrian Christians, Turkmen Shia, Shabak Shia, Yazidis, Kaka'i and Sabean Mandeans, who have lived together for centuries in Nineveh province, large parts of which are now under ISIL's control.
Genocide
ISIL's crimes of murder, ethnic cleansing, enslavement and rape against Shia, Christian, and Yazidi minorities within its' territories have been recognized as a genocide.
Shia Muslims
Despite being the religious majority in Iraq, Shia Muslims have been killed in large numbers by ISIL. By June 2014, ISIL had already claimed to have killed 1700 Shia Muslims. ISIL, attempting to create a Sunni Muslim caliphate, has labelled all Shia Muslims infidels. As a result, they have specifically targeted Shia communities. According to witnesses, after the militant group took the city of Mosul, they divided the Sunni prisoners from the Shia prisoners. 650 Shia prisoners were then taken to another location and executed. Kurdish officials in Erbil have reported similar incidents where Sunni and Shia prisoners were separated and Shia prisoners were killed.
Christians
Iraqi Christians, the majority being the Chaldean Christians of Northern Iraq, have also been targeted by ISIL. The group tells Christians they must either convert to Islam, pay a fine, or face execution. ISIL has also taken Qaraqosh, Iraq's largest Christian city. Christians who fled the city reported summary executions and mass beheadings. Some have also been kidnapped and held for ransom. Others have been publicly whipped for refusing to convert to Islam. Many Christians have been displaced and have fled their villages to escape ISIL. The group has also systematically destroyed Christian churches and shrines. ISIL fighters have destroyed and vandalized many Christian monuments, and they have taken down crosses from the tops of churches, replacing them with ISIL flags. They've marked Christian homes with an Arabic "N" which stands for "Nasrane", a common anti-Christian slur in Iraq.
Yazidis
The persecution of Yazidis has been labelled a genocide. This religious sect has been subjected to massacres, forced conversion, forced exile, rape, torture, slavery, sexual slavery, and forced conscription. There have been numerous massacres in attacks on Yazidi villages. In many of the massacres, militants separate the men from the women. Afterward, the men are lined up at checkpoints along the side of the road, shot, and bulldozed into mass graves. Sometimes, men are also given the option of converting to Islam or being executed, so there have been many instances of both forced conversions and killings for refusal to convert to ISIL's version of Islam. Other Yazidi men have been forced into Yazidi temples and blown up inside or taken into captivity. Yezidi boys taken captive are typically forced to become ISIL fighters.
Yazidi women and children have also faced persecution at the hands of ISIL. Yazidi women and girls have been subjected to systematic rape, forced marriage, child marriage, and sexual slavery. Some of them have been as young as eight years old. These "marriages" are often abusive, and the captives are often raped by multiple men, typically friends of their captors. They believe that if a woman is raped by ten ISIL fighters, she will become Muslim. Some are chosen through "lotteries" in which ISIL fighters draw names in order to choose which captive to rape. Many have also been sold as sex slaves to ISIL fighters. There are also reports that women forced into sex slavery have been subjected to forced abortions. Many of these captives have tried to take their own lives.
Laws regarding same-sex sexual activity
Law enforcement in ISIL controlled areas purport to carry out punishments that are in accordance with Sharia law. They interpret this as meaning that homosexuals caught engaging in same-sex affairs should be thrown from rooftops. If the person does not die on impact then they should be stoned to death.
In some areas beheading is used due to a lack of tall buildings for the accused to be thrown from.
ISIL has published a list of offenses that will result in automatic execution, including homosexuality.
According to Subhi Nahas, a gay Syrian who escaped Syria fearing for his life, stated that he had heard that while ISIL was sparing effeminate gay men “for the pleasure of older men,” the “masculine” men suspected of being gay were being killed. He also stated that gay men joined ISIL to protect themselves and their families, sometimes reporting on fellow gays to conceal themselves more effectively.
According to Kamandar Bakhtiar, former member of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province, stated that ISIL militants in Afghanistan regularly rape gay men as punishment, differing in punishment for homosexuals from ISIL militants in Iraq and Syria.
Laws regarding same-sex sexual pedophilia
Abu Zaid al-Jazrawi, a senior commander of ISIL, either had a sexual relation or raped a 15 year old boy who was thrown off a building in Deir ez-Zor, Syria for being gay. It was reported that al-Jazrawi was reportedly flogged, forced to leave Syria, and join the fighting fronts in northwestern Iraq. The Sharia Court in Deir ez-Zor reportedly said that Abu Zaid should, like the boy, die for being gay, but ISIS commanders demanded he be sent to fight in Iraq instead.
On June 12, 2016, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State, issued a fatwa stating that: “It is permissible for the mujahid [jihadi] to enjoy young boys in the absence of women.” The justification for the fatwa was quoting Koran 52:24 “There will circulate among them [servant] boys [especially] for them, as if they were pearls well-protected.” A similar verse from the Koran (76:19) reads: “There will circulate among them young boys made eternal. When you see them, you would think them [as beautiful as] scattered pearls.”
Executions
On November 23, 2014, ISIL fighters stoned to death a 20-year-old unidentified man in Mayadin, Syria and fighters stoned to death an 18-year-old unidentified man in Deir Ezzor, Syria. The men were known opponents of ISIL, and their supporters say ISIL had used the allegation that they were gay as justification to execute them. This was the first reported execution of LGBT people by ISIL.
On April 30, 2015, it was reported that three men, accused of being homosexual, were executed by being shot in the head by the ISIL in Derna, Libya. Human rights activists consider this the first death sentence against homosexuals in the history of modern Libya.
From December 9, 2014 to May 7, 2016, OutRight Action International estimated that 41 gay men were executed in ISIL controlled territories in Iraq and Syria.
On July 22, 2016, it was reported by activists that ISIL executed a young Iraqi man in Kirkuk, Iraq by throwing him from the top of a building on charges of being gay. His corpse was later stoned by the crowd. ISIL arrested the man under the pretext that he was a homosexual.
On August 10, 2016, a video was released by ISIL showing ISIL religious police, known as “hisbah”, in “Wilayat al-Jazirah,” Iraq, which shows a gay man being thrown off a building. According to the Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium, Wilayat al-Jazirah used to be considered part of Wilayat Ninawa, which contains Mosul. Vulnerable cities in Wilayat al-Jazirah include “Tal ‘Afar, Al-Ba’aj, Al-‘Ayadiyyah, Al-Mahlabiyyah, Sinjar, Wardiyyah, Sanuni, Khana Sor, Ibrat al-Saghira, Al-Badi, Al-Qanat.”
On August 11, 2016, a video was released by ISIL showing ISIL jihadis in Mosul, Iraq throwing a gay man to his death by pushing him off the top of a tall building. The gay man was found gulity of 'corruption of thought' and 'homosexual acts'.
On August 20, 2016, a local source in Nineveh province, Iraq revealed that ISIL executed four men on charges of homosexuality and sodomy, including two of its own members, by throwing them off a building.
On December 5, 2016, ISIL threw a gay man accused of 'homosexual relations' off top of a building in Maslamah City in Aleppo, Syria.
Allegations of organ trafficking
The group released a fatwa permitting the removal of organs from non-Muslim captives. The document says that "The apostate's life and organs don't have to be respected and may be taken with impunity." The document seems to define apostate as non-Muslim though Shia Muslim captives may also be endangered by the fatwa due to ISIL's extreme interpretation of Islam. The document also claims ISIL authorizes the removal of organs from captives even when it may kill them. Iraq has accused the group of harvesting human organs for profit.