At least 157 children are among thousands of detainees transferred from northeastern Syria to Iraq over alleged ISIS ties. As proceedings continue, Amnesty International warns that authorities must protect children and guarantee fair trials. The next session is scheduled for October 5, 2026.
In its October 2 statement, Amnesty puts the transferred group at 5,704 people. Proceedings began on September 20. However, suspected affiliation does not establish individual guilt, and the presence of children demands particular safeguards.
A child’s association does not prove a crime
ISIS exploited children as well as adults. Its crimes against religious minorities included forcing captives to convert and separating young women and girls from their families. Human Rights Watch documented these abuses against Yazidis in 2014.
Later research also examined how ISIS recruited children. In a 2019 report, Human Rights Watch described coercion, family pressure, poverty, and other factors behind recruitment. It found that authorities prosecuted children for alleged membership, sometimes without establishing involvement in violent acts.
These distinctions matter. A child who committed a serious offense, a child forced into service, and a child wrongly accused require different responses. Treating them as interchangeable undermines both child protection and meaningful accountability.
Amnesty urges Iraq to prosecute children only in exceptional cases involving credible evidence of serious violent crimes or international crimes. It also calls for authorities to consider their age when the alleged conduct occurred. Growing older in detention should not erase the protections attached to childhood.
Earlier torture allegations raise urgent concerns
Warnings about abusive interrogations have a long history. For its 2019 report, Human Rights Watch interviewed 29 boys and young people whom Kurdish authorities had detained over alleged ISIS links. Nineteen said security officers tortured them to obtain confessions.
Several described admitting involvement simply to stop the abuse. The organization could not independently establish their actual links to ISIS. Its findings concerned earlier cases, rather than proving what happened to each person in the current transferred group.
Nevertheless, that record makes scrutiny essential. A confession obtained through pain cannot provide a sound foundation for justice. It may produce a conviction while leaving the underlying crime unresolved.
Children retain rights when authorities accuse them
The Convention on the Rights of the Child requires detention to serve as a last resort and last only as long as appropriate. It also protects children’s access to legal assistance and their ability to challenge detention.
Furthermore, the convention prohibits capital punishment for offenses committed before age 18. That safeguard concerns age at the time of the offense, not age at sentencing. Iraq’s wider terrorism framework allows death sentences, making fair procedures especially consequential.
The convention also emphasizes dignity and reintegration in child justice. Accountability should help a child return to society, while respecting the rights and safety of others. A system focused solely on punishment neglects that obligation.
Justice must establish individual responsibility
Victims of ISIS deserve credible investigations and meaningful accountability. Courts should establish who committed particular crimes and evaluate reliable evidence. Sweeping labels cannot do that work.
Meanwhile, governments must protect children from torture, wrongful prosecution, and prolonged detention. Those protections do not excuse atrocities. They make it possible to distinguish perpetrators from victims and the wrongly accused.
As the proceedings resume, Iraq faces a serious test. It must address the legacy of ISIS without allowing suspicion to substitute for proof. Children caught in that process deserve justice that recognizes their circumstances and protects their future.
