German lawmakers on Thursday recognised the 2014 massacre of the Yazidi community in Iraqi Kurdistan at the hands of the Islamic State (ISIS) as a genocide, following the lead of UN investigators, AFP reported.

“The recognition of the genocide is an essential step to overcome the traumas for the Yazidi community,” said MP Max Lucks from Germany’s Greens, highlighting the precarious situation faced by survivors still living in Iraq.

“A safe life, peace … must be our ambition for the Yazidi community,” he said.

Germany, where a large Yazidi diaspora lives, is one of the few countries to have taken legal action against ISIS.

In November, a German court convicted an Iraqi jihadist of genocide against the Yazidis, a first in the world that Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad hailed as a victory in the fight for recognition of the abuses committed by ISIS.

ISIS militants have killed hundreds of men, raped and abducted thousands of women, and forcibly recruited children as fighters from among the Yazidi community, who were a religiously peaceful people until the attacks.

A special UN investigation team announced in May 2021 that it had collected “clear and convincing evidence” that jihadists had committed genocide against Yazidis. In 2021, the Belgian and Dutch parliaments also recognised the Yazidi genocide.