“Through systematic sexual violence, individual Yazidi women are physically and psychologically harmed and stigmatised, families are traumatised, and communities are shattered and deprived of their ability to self-perpetuate. In light of recognition by the G8 and the United Nations that ‘sexual violence can constitute a crime against humanity or a constitutive act with respect to genocide,’ this paper will examine academic sources that demonstrate how sexual violence against women and girls can be used to further genocidal aims. It will then apply this premise to the current situation in Iraq, based on media articles, UN and government reports, non-government organisation material and media interviews with Yazidi survivors. The picture obtained by analysing the treatment of women and girls is of a highly gendered genocide with sexual violence a prime component, and one in which the world must intervene before thousands more suffer.”