Alex Crawford

Travelling foreign correspondent based in Istanbul. Sky News Special Correspondent. Wrote Colonel Gadaffi's Hat in ptsd haze.

[Alex Crawford @AlexCrawfordSky]

UN experts warn against ‘normalisation’ of Taliban rules. That’s a very polite way of reminding Govts that it is not ‘normal’ to exclude girls and women from education. It’s not ‘normal’ to ban them from most work. It’s not ‘normal’ to insist they require a man’s permission to go outside the home. The Taliban men and their supporters will this weekend be celebrating the day they seized power five years ago. The women of Afghanistan will not

[UN Special Procedures @UN_SPExperts]

#Afghanistan: UN experts warn against the normalization of the Taliban rule, urge states to accelerate steps towards accountability in the face of increasing restrictions imposed on the population, including women and girls, over the past year.

https://t.co/MmKuxYNHfJ

[Alex Crawford @AlexCrawfordSky]

Remember Afghanistan? Remember the Taliban? They’ve been in power for five years now. And during those years the Taliban authorities have systematically stripped women and girls of virtually all their rights - in the name of religion. The rules upon rules have resulted in the “world’s most severe women’s rights crisis”, as described by the gender equality agency UN Women .

[UN News @UN_News_Centre]

Five years after the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, more than 100 decrees have dismantled the rights of half the population.

“This unparalleled crisis of women’s and girls’ rights is at risk of being forgotten by the world,” @UN_Women said.

https://t.co/j77c0RMyQq

[Richard Sanders @PulaRJS]

Close to 600,000 views in 24 hours. Clearly struck a chord this one. Keep sharing. Full interview below.

[Alex Crawford @AlexCrawfordSky]

What a line-up of extraordinarily brave and talented women 💪🏼 @SangitaMyska @carolecadwalla

[Sangita Myska @SangitaMyska]

And I’m very proud to now work with @carolecadwalla & @thenerve_news . It’s a truly fearless, ethical, female-led digital news site. Please sign up for their free news letter (you’ll see my column too!) and consider subscribing 🙏🏽

[Ramzi Kaiss / رمزي قيس @kaiss_ramzi]

Lebanon’s parliament has just voted to abolish the death penalty, becoming the first Arab country to end capital punishment - a monumental step for human rights in the country.

[Farahnaz Forotan @FForotan]

Unbelievable: for five years, Afghan girls have been denied education while the world has largely responded with statements. Five years have been lost, five years of dreams, opportunities, and futures stolen from an entire generation.

[Shaharzad Akbar شهرزاد اکبر @ShaharzadAkbar]

The need for international institutions and mechanisms, and Member States to move beyond rhetorical statements, to meaningful action, is crucial in the quest for transformative change, justice and accountability, and the promotion and protection of human rights of women and girls

[Alex Crawford @AlexCrawfordSky]

All true. The UN, Amnesty, HRW, Israeli human rights orgs and the Int Assoc of Genocide Scholars all accuse Israel of committing genocide and war crimes in Gaza - and the Israeli authorities continue to bar int reporters; int rescue teams; and int forensic teams from Gaza

[Heather #FundOurNHS 💙 @heather_c_c]

@AlexCrawfordSky Shocking.
Avoid the passive please- to be recovered.
Israel is committing genocide & war crimes AND preventing international journalists from reporting, international rescue teams from rescuing, international forensic teams from recording war crimes. It is all deliberate.

[Sky News @SkyNews]

Israeli soldiers 'point guns at paramedics taking pregnant woman to hospital'

Read more 🔗 https://t.co/HeyMaSCWcj

[Alex Crawford @AlexCrawfordSky]

There is a shocking lack of accountability for the atrocities committed by ISIS fighters and supporters against Yazidi women. ‘While nearly half of the 850 people of national security concern who left the UK for the Syrian conflict have returned, not a single British Daesh member has been successfully prosecuted in UK courts for international crimes (such as genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity)’ Yazidi survivors continue to ask why not - and demand justice, 12 years on

[Lord (David) Alton @DavidAltonHL]

On this anniversary of Yazidi Atrocities:

Not one on the 400 UK members of ISIS who murdered and enslaved Yazidis and other minorities in Syria and Northern Iraq - and who have returned to the UK - has been brought to justice for their genocidal crimes.

In @UKParliament Ministers have repeatedly been asked about the failure to bring genocidaires to justice, about evidence collected and now gathering dust in a storage facility.

I went to Sinjar and heard and saw firsthand from Yazidi survivors whose suffering is compounded by the scandalous impunity of the perpetrators.

New @FCDOGovUK Minister @StewartWood - Lord Wood of Anfield - has provided the following answer to my written parliamentary question (HL2620).

Question:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the value of funding they provided for the establishment and running of the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh/ISIL (UNITAD) until it was closed in 2024; and what conversations they have had with their counterparts on how to continue using the evidence gathered by UNITAD to ensure justice for the Yazidis and other ethno-religious minorities targeted by Daesh. (HL2620)
Tabled on: 23 July 2026

Answer:
Lord Wood of Anfield:
The UK played a leading role in the establishment of the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh (UNITAD) and remains committed to securing justice for survivors of Daesh crimes following UNITAD's closure. The UK paid its share of the UNITAD operating expenses on the UN budget. The UK continues to work with the Governments of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, alongside international partners, to help ensure that Daesh members are held accountable for the crimes they have committed. The UK also continues to support survivor-centred implementation of the Yazidi Survivors' Law (2021).

Date and time of answer: 31 Jul 2026 at 15:02.
—

The UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) @HumanRightsCtte published its landmark report titled "Accountability for Daesh Crimes" on 13 May 2025. https://t.co/bYZXPEF5bY
The cross-party parliamentary committee called for a complete "reset" of the UK's legal approach, warning that British Daesh fighters must not escape justice. The report concluded that the UK has fallen short of meeting its international obligations to punish genocide and support affected British nationals.

The core takeaways include:

Zero Prosecutions for Core International Crimes -while nearly half of the 850 people of national security concern who left the UK for the Syrian conflict have returned, not a single British Daesh member has been successfully prosecuted in UK courts for international crimes (such as genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity).

Terrorism Laws: Returnees have historically only been prosecuted under standard domestic counter-terrorism laws, which fails to legally account for atrocities like the genocide against the Yazidi population.

Core Recommendations

To close these accountability gaps, the JCHR recommended several critical legal and policy reforms: Expand Universal Jurisdiction; Empower Specialized Units and provide additional resources to the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command and the Crown Prosecution Service to actively investigate war crimes; Address Citizenship Deprivation; Repatriate Detained Children by taking active steps to safeguard and repatriate British children currently in Syria, treating them primarily as victims of trafficking and recognise that leaving to fester in deplorable conditions will merely create another generation of terrorists and genocidaires.
@UKHouseofLords @CommonsSpeaker @LordSpeaker @CommonsSpeaker @andyburnham @HelenaKennedyKC @DXW_KC @arminkahelic @alexsobel @Ed_Miliband @SDoughtyMP @HFalconerMP @elliereeves @timfarron @SarahLudford @BrendanOHaraMP

[Alex Crawford @AlexCrawfordSky]

The largest funeral in Palestinian history is about to be held….And there are still many more thousands of bodies yet to be recovered from beneath the Gaza rubble after more than two years of intense Israeli air strikes

[Mustafa Barghouti @Mustafa_Barghouti @MustafaBarghou1]

Gaza is set to witness tomorrow what is expected to be the largest funeral in Palestinian history, as the remains of 112 victims from the Abu Sharia and Al-Hasayna families will be laid to rest. Their bodies were recovered from among the 308 people killed in the massacre carried out by the Israeli army during the genocidal war in Gaza, after having remained missing beneath the rubble.

[David Yelland @davidyelland]

There are more children-of-journalists mates-of-mates in (non-BBC) London journalism than there are those with northern accents. Kids where I grew up no longer stand a chance as London is too expensive and the new elite too closed.... it is hardly surprising there is so much anti-northern vitriol. It is unhealthy.

[Chris Doyle @Doylech]

Reminder that senior US officials have been meeting with Hamas officials and that has been after 7 October.

[Alex Crawford @AlexCrawfordSky]

A call to action from the Evangelical Lutheran pastor in Ramallah about the growing, violent settler attacks on Palestinian villages which continue with impunity. ‘I do not want to share statistics, he says, ‘I am tired of numbers. We're not numbers. We're not headlines. We're talking about mothers, fathers, children, grandparents — with names, with stories, with futures that are being cut short’

[Munther Isaac منذر اسحق @MuntherIsaac]

Urgent message and call to prayer.
'Every day we wake up wondering which Palestinian village will be attacked next. We are exhausted. We live in fear and terror.'
Settler violence in the West Bank has become a daily, relentless reality. Families attacked in their homes. Farms burned. People killed. And Palestinians left defenseless with no protection and no accountability.
I do not want to share statistics. I am tired of numbers.
'We're not numbers. We're not headlines. We're talking about mothers, fathers, children, grandparents — with names, with stories, with futures that are being cut short.'
He calls us to pray. Not as a substitute for justice — but because we believe God hears the cry of the oppressed.
I call on you to act. To speak. To write. To mobilize. To refuse to look away.
'We owe it to every family living in fear today. We also owe it to our faith.'

[Monica Lennon @MonicaLennon7]

Robert is so right. I’ve definitely put a bit of weight on but I’m just relieved and grateful to have come through a serious health scare and surgery… and don’t start me on the minefield that is menopause. 😘

Ps Not really a Monster Munch gal.

[Alex Crawford @AlexCrawfordSky]

The targeting of Lebanese paramedics by Israeli forces has not stopped. The Islamic Health Authority said (Thursday) two paramedics were injured in an Israeli double-tap strike targeting a civil defence team as it attended an earlier strike site in Nabatieh in southern Lebanon. The team's ambulance was also damaged in the attack. This brings the number of injured emergency responders to at least 260 since the latest Israeli war on Lebanon began on March 2. According to Lebanon's Health ministry, 130 paramedics have been killed in more than 176 direct attacks on rescue teams.

[Alex Crawford @AlexCrawfordSky]

Yep. Depressing. Infuriating and utterly irrelevant

[Rachel Moiselle @RachelMoiselle]

It’s honestly depressing to see that it is mainly women ridiculing Marie-France van Heel (Burnham’s wife) for her choice of dress. One that she looks gorgeous in, by the way.

It’s nasty, mean girl behaviour from sad individuals who seemingly believe we live in one big secondary school. Well, we don’t. Grow up.

[Neville Lazarus @nevilleskynews]

Supporters of India’s youth-led “cockroach” movement faced police batons and tear gas as they tried to march to parliament...
https://t.co/sfdFTeTqy8

https://t.co/rWURF7AMbq

@CJP_for_India @Cockroachisback @abhijeet_dipke @SauravDassss

[Alex Crawford @AlexCrawfordSky]

The new UK Foreign secretary’s voting record and the ongoing aftermath via @KimGhattas

[Kim Ghattas @KimGhattas]

Ed Miliband's vote opposing military action in Syria in 2013, after Obama's red line on Assad's use of chemical weapons, was a domestic political vote yet had major consequences for Syria, US power, migration into Europe, rise of populism, impunity of Assad and Putin

[Coalition for Genocide Response @Coalition4GR]

Parliamentary Session: Impunity for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Globally with @AlexCrawfordSky Judge Ted Meron @ZahraJoya @HelenaKennedyKC Rebecca Hawkins @RHSculpture and @EwelinaUO launching her new book on conflict-related sexual violence (@routledgebooks) https://t.co/RIy5AMGQ9k @BiancaJagger @BishopAngaelos