The European Parliament has recognised as genocide the Islamic State’s killing of Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East.
This is the first time the European Parliament has acknowledged an ongoing conflict as genocide.
Lars Adaktusson, the Swedish MEP who tabled the resolution, said the significance of the move is the obligations that follow.
“The collective obligation to intervene, to stop these atrocities and to stop the persecution in the ongoing discussion about the fight against the Islamic State,” he said.
The resolution may pave the way for Britain and the US State Department to give similar recognition to ISIS’s slaughter of Christians.
A motion to that effect has been tabled in the UK’s House of Commons.