A/HRC/42/51 85. As many of their countries of origin initially refused to repatriate them, most families of foreign ISIL fighters, including children, are being held in limbo by SDF. Subsequently, women and children remain at higher risk of further radicalization, especially given the absence of age- and gender-sensitive rehabilitation programmes. Several instances of attacks inflicted by radicalized women against other encamped female residents have also been reported, including beatings, harassment and the burning of tents of women perceived to be “infidels”. Approximately 3,500 children, including 502 who are unaccompanied, subsist in the camp, many of whom were born to foreign fighters, including as a result of rape. As in the case of their mothers, the majority lack identification documentation, which in turn jeopardizes their rights to a nationality, 23 hinders family reunification processes and puts them at higher risk of exploitation and abuse. 86. Along with ISIL family members, a large number of Yazidi women, girls and boys surfaced from the last ISIL stronghold in Baghuz and were taken by SDF to Al-Hol camp. Often accompanied in the camp by the families of their captors, many concealed their ethnic and religious identities fearing retaliation by ISIL supporters and threats that the group might return. Others feared that the stigma emanating from the myriad atrocities committed against them, including sexual slavery and rape,24 would exclude them from the Yazidi community, as they had often been told by ISIL fighters while in captivity. 87. A decision issued by the Yazidi Supreme Spiritual Council 25 announced that rescued Yazidi women would be accepted back into their community, although without their children born to ISIL fighters as a result of rape. 26 Survivors who sought to return faced the painful dilemma of either leaving their children in orphanages in the Syrian Arab Republic or be exiled from the community. Scattered in makeshift camps in the east of the Syrian Arab Republic, some Yazidi survivors were confined with the family members of their captors, further exacerbating the trauma of their experiences. After having suffered multiple violations, and with unclear prospects of returning to their community, Yazidi women and children in Al-Hol camp endured limited access to the health care, psychological support and trauma therapy necessary for their recovery. 88. When Yazidi survivors described the crimes that they had experienced and witnessed, it is the loss of identity and sense of belonging, in addition to fear, harm and pain, that emerged as the most common narrative among them, in particular for Yazidi girls. Yazidi boys narrated similar accounts, in addition to denying their ethno-religious origins and forgetting their birth families, names and mother tongue. The trauma of these experiences was compounded in cases of family separation when mothers, as members of the group, had to give up their children born in captivity to orphanages in order to re-enter their community. In some instances, that “choice” contributed to the reluctance of Yazidi mothers to leave Al-Hol camp, further alienating them from their communities. With most Yazidi survivors forced into Al-Hol and similar internment camps in the east of the Syrian Arab Republic, the long-term effects of genocidal harm further challenge the precarious existence and unique characteristics of the Yazidi as an ethnic and religious minority group,27 as well as the intangible aspects of their culture, such as traditional practices and rites, among others.28 23 24 25 26 27 28 16 See the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 24, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 7. The Commission has previously reported on the crimes committed against Yazidi women and girls taken into ISIL-held areas in the Syrian Arab Republic. See conference room paper “‘They came to destroy’: ISIS crimes against Yazidis” (A/HRC/32/CRP.2). Available from www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/IICISyria/Pages/Documentation.aspx. On 24 April, the Yazidi Supreme Spiritual Council issued a declaration accepting all rescued survivors. The decision was, however, reversed three days later to exclude children born to ISIL fighters. See generally A/HRC/32/CRP.2. Global Justice Center, “Beyond killing: gender, genocide, and obligations under international law” (New York, 2018). Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, art. 1.