The United Nations (UN) Security Council voted unanimously on extending the mandate of a UN team tasked with investigations in crimes committed by the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq, the UN in Iraq said on Saturday.
A statement by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said that the Security Council voted on Friday to extend the mandate of UN's Investigative Team for Accountability of Da'esh (UNITAD) for another year until Sept. 21, 2020.
The vote came upon the request of the Iraqi government, as the team continues to support Iraq's efforts "to hold Daesh members accountable by collecting, preserving and storing evidence of the most serious crimes committed in Iraq in line with the highest possible standards," the statement said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
Speaking of the voting for the extension of UNITAD mission, the UNITAD Chief and Special Adviser Karim Khan said that the unanimous backing of the council at the request of the Iraqi government "represents an important recognition of progress made to date, but we have much more to do," the statement said.
The council condemned the IS crimes and recognized that holding those accountable will further expose these crimes as being used as a tactic of terrorism, while recognizing that UNITAD's work could assist to counter terrorism and violent extremism, it added.
The UNITAD team was formed in 2017 to support Iraq's efforts in holding the extremist IS group accountable for the crimes committed against the people of Iraq.
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