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On October 1st, after more than 12 years of waiting, the remains of 25 Yazidis killed during the genocide were returned to their families, offering long-awaited answers and the opportunity to lay their loved ones to rest.
On September 20, 2026, Iraq’s National Team for Mass Grave Excavations began a new round of mass grave exhumations in Sinjar. Work is underway at the Sharaf al-Din mass grave and will continue for 20 days.
Nadia's Initiative is working in close coordination with the Directorate for the Protection of Mass Graves and Missing Persons and the field team to support this round of exhumations. For survivors, justice includes recovering the remains of their loved ones. Each identification returns a name to a family. Twelve years after the genocide began, many families are still waiting.
Nadia Murad's second book, I Choose My Beginning: A Story of Courage and Activism, is out today. Published by Summit Books, it opens with a foreword by Gloria Steinem.
The Last Girl told the story of what ISIS did to Nadia, her family, and the Yazidi community in 2014. I Choose My Beginning picks up where that book left off, tracing Nadia's journey in the decade since. Those were the years she spent in the halls of international institutions and in courtrooms demanding justice for survivors, and the same years she spent learning how to be a university student, a friend, and a wife. The book brings those two lives together, and carries the memory of those she lost, and those who survived, into both.
To mark the 12th anniversary of the Yazidi genocide, Nadia's Initiative and the Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations in Geneva brought together survivors, Member States, UN officials, and international organizations for a commemoration at the Palais des Nations. Nadia Murad and fellow survivors of conflict-related sexual violence spoke about the unfinished work of justice, and why survivors must be at the center of efforts to shape accountability and recovery. Their remarks anchored a discussion on the priorities that remain: locating missing persons, prosecuting perpetrators, resolving displacement, and supporting the long-term recovery of affected communities.
On World Refugee Day, we honor the courage of people rebuilding their lives after conflict and displacement.
After surviving captivity and spending time displaced in Iraq, Viyan and her children were welcomed to France in 2019 through a humanitarian resettlement initiative for Yazidi single mothers and their minor children. Today, Viyan and her family are writing a new chapter. Her children attend school, the family has access to healthcare and a stable home, and they are creating a future shaped by safety, routine, and possibility.
Last week, ahead of the G7 Summit in Évian, France, Nadia Murad had the opportunity to join President Emmanuel Macron and representatives of the G7 engagement groups for an event at the Élysée Palace in Paris. The event brought together civil society leaders, advocates, and experts who have spent the past year developing recommendations for the Summit.
Nadia's message was clear: amid a global backlash against women's rights, gender equality and the fight to end conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) must remain on the world's agenda.