The Yazidi religious minority was a subject to extreme violence perpetrated by the so-called Islamic State (IS) in Iraq in 2014. This thesis argues that the violence was genocidal in nature and aimed to destroy the Yazidi group as such. Using theories from sociology, it seeks to explain how the violence caused a tremendous social change within the Yazidi community. The study further revises concepts of terrorism and perpetrators of genocide and demonstrates that the perpetrator does not necessarily need to be a state, but another kind of strong organization can be capable of committing such atrocities as well.

How to respond to ongoing genocide? How to punish her perpetrators? In 2014, world witnessed another modern genocide, the eradication of the whole ethnicity - the so-called Islamic State attacked an area in northern Iraq for centuries inhabited by members of a small but distinct ethnical group of Yazidi people. This diploma thesis deals with the establishment of discourse of Yazidi genocide, the process of recognition of events as genocide at the international level. In this work I investigate the definition of victims and aggressors and the international response to genocide, both in the media and political sphere. For the discourse of the Yazidi genocide was crucial to differentiate victims and violence against them from other events. Similarly, it was important to accurately name the perpetrators of genocide and treat them as a potential geopolitical threat, but as the cause of one of the worst crimes known to mankind. The discourse of the Yazidi genocide was largely determined by politicians - and, as I show in my work, the political dimension of events has pushed the humanitarian and legal ones behind. These all aspects take on the formation and maintenance of a given discourse.

In 2014, the terrorist organization Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) emerged and carried out a brutalattack on ethnic minorities in Irak, especially northeastern Iraq. Several minority groups fell into thehands of ISIS and were tortured. One ethnic minority group that this study focuses on is the Yazidis.  The aim of this research for bachelor's degree in POLITICAL SCIENCE, is to draw attention to how therights of the Yazidis were violated after the ISIS attack in 2014 until today. The main question of thestudy is structured as follows: How were the rights of the Yazidis violated in connection with theemergence of ISIS in 2014 and onwards? The question will be answered based on Kymlicka’s theory ofmulticulturalism, which is based on three main pillars: self-government rights, polyethnic rights andspecial representation rights. The method used for this study was a qualitative case study that collecteddata to thoroughly and nuanced investigate the study's cases. In relation to the theoretical framework,method and empirical analysis, the purpose of the study has been achieved and the question has beenanswered. The results of this study are consistent with previous research that noted that ISIS had committed seriousand systematic human rights abuses and including war crimes. The Yazidis demand autonomy becauseof the prevailing circumstances in Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan, which are struggling to control the Yazidis.This has hampered the Yazidis' opportunities for employment in economic and political institutions,integration and political representation. Yazidis are in a vulnerable situation in Iraq where they areforced to assimilate or identify as either Kurds or Arabs in order to gain their rights. The ISIS attack leftan open gap that has not yet been resolved, and tensions between the groups are rising. The decisions ofthe majority society must take into account the views and interests of minority groups in order to reducethe barrier. Hard work by international bodies is needed to ensure and guarantee the survival and identityof the Yazidis in Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan.