Former ISIS sex slaves given EU human rights award

The European Parliament on Tuesday honored two Yazidi women who escaped sexual enslavement by the Islamic State terror group with its annual Sakharov Prize for human rights.

Lamiya Aji Bashar, 18, said the EU's top human rights prize was one "for every woman and girl who has been sexually enslaved'' by ISIS. With a poignant testimony that brought many lawmakers to tears, she and 23-year-old Nadia Murad spoke of their personal fate and escape.

“I ask Europe to open its doors to the Yazidis, like it did after the Holocaust," Aji Bashar told the lawmakers in Strasbourg.

Both women called on the European Union to recognize the ongoing genocide against the Yazidi people. “The EU must call for the prosecution and international accountability for ISIS, for example before the International Criminal Court, or a special court."

They added: “We ask that the EU and all those concerned with the fate of Syria and Iraq establish a safe zone to protect the Yazidis, Christians and other vulnerable minorities in Sinjar and the Nineveh Plain.

“If the world can’t protect the Yazidis in our homeland, we ask Europe to give us a safe new home.” The genocide against the Yazidi people by Isis was recognized by the United States in March this year and by the United Nations in June. However, the EU has not formally acknowledged the genocide, though the European Parliament asked EU member states to take action in February 2016. 

The Yazidi are a minority of 500,000 living primarily in northern Iraq. Hundreds of Yazidi women and girls are still captives of ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria. The Yazidi follow an ancient religion that some Muslim hardliners consider heretical.

The EU award, named after the late Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, was created in 1988 to honor individuals or groups who defend human rights and fundamental freedoms.