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Rescued ISIS sex slave, Nadia Murad, made UN Goodwill Ambassador

The appointment marks the first time a survivor of atrocities is bestowed with this distinction, UNODC said on their official website.

New York: Nadia Murad, a former ISIS sex slave, has been appointed as the Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on September 16, 2016 in New York.

The formal announcement by UNODC states, "During her Ambassadorship, Nadia will focus on advocacy initiatives and raise awareness around the plight of the countless victims of trafficking."

The appointment marks the first time a survivor of atrocities is bestowed with this distinction, UNODC said on their official website.

UNODC is the lead UN entity fighting all forms of human trafficking, including sexual slavery, forced labour, child soldiering and trafficking for the purpose of organ removal.

Nadia was kidnapped by ISIS militants from her home in Kochu village near Iraq's northern town of Sinjar in August 2014 and brought to Mosul. She was since then kept as a sex slave by the militants who often gangraped her, until she fainted.

After her harrowing escape with the help of a fake religious ID nearly two years ago, Murad has a message for world leaders striving to crush the extremists: IS leaders must stand trial for genocide.

"I was not able to take any more rape and torture," she told the council, so she decided to flee.

Nadia's campaign on sex abuse has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Through her campaign, she wants to highlight the human rights abuses faced by women at the hands of ISIS militants.

She has also joined hands with Amal Clooney, a human rights lawyer to court for crimes against humanity. Together with Clooney, she aims to represent thousands of ISIS sex slave victims and lead their cases in the International Criminal Court.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle with agency inputs )
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