The condition of human rights in the territory controlled by the Islamic State (IS) is considered to be among the worst in the world. The Islamic State's policies included acts of genocide, torture and slavery. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) stated in November 2014 that the Islamic State "seeks to subjugate civilians under its control and dominate every aspect of their lives through terror, indoctrination, and the provision of services to those who obey". Many Islamic State actions of extreme criminality, terror, recruitment and other activities have been documented in the Middle East.

The territories in Iraq and Syria, which was occupied by the Islamic State and claimed as part of its self-dubbed "Caliphate" saw the creation of one of the most criminally active, corrupt and violent regimes in modern times, and it ruled that territory until its defeat. IS murdered tens of thousands of civilians, kidnapped several thousand people, and forced hundreds of thousands of others to flee. It systematically committed torture, mass rapes, forced marriages, extreme acts of ethnic cleansing, mass murder, genocide, robbery, extortion, smuggling, slavery, kidnappings, and the use of child soldiers; in its implementation of strict interpretations of Sharia law which were based on ancient eighth-century methods, they carried out public "punishments" such as beheadings, crucifixions, beatings, mutilation and dismemberment, the stoning of both children and adults, and the live burning of people. IS members committed rape against tens of thousands of girls and women (mainly members of non-Sunni minority groups and families).

Several human rights organizations and peace organizations, including Human Rights Watch, the United Nations and Amnesty International, have deemed IS guilty of crimes against humanity, and they have also accused the whole IS organization of being a criminal organization, one which has committed some of the most severe war crimes since the Axis powers of World War II (particularly Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan).

UN's determinations A UN report released in 2014 stated that between 6 July and 10 September 2014, IS and allied insurgent groups launched violence in an "apparent systematic and widespread character" across Iraq. The report stated that these violent acts included forced abductions and perpetration of "sexual and physical violence" against women and children.

In November 2014, the UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic said that the Islamic State was committing crimes against humanity and that it "seeks to subjugate civilians under its control and dominate every aspect of their lives through terror, indoctrination, and the provision of services to those who obey."Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic: Rule of Terror: Living under ISIS in Syria, 14 November 2014. In October 2015, the UN Human Rights Council "strongly condemn[ed] the terrorist acts and violence committed against civilians by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Daesh), al-Nusrah Front and other extremist groups, and their continued gross, systematic and widespread abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law, and reaffirm[ed] that terrorism, including the actions of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Daesh), cannot and should not be associated with any religion, nationality or civilization."Human Rights Council Resolution 30/10. The grave and deteriorating human rights and humanitarian situation in the Syrian Arab Republic, 1 October 2015.

Statements by human rights groups A report by Human Rights Watch in November 2014 accused IS militants in Libya's Derna of war crimes and human rights abuses and of terrorizing residents. Human Rights Watch documented three apparent incidents in which captives were killed and at least ten public floggings by the Islamic Youth Shura Council, which joined IS in November. It also documented the beheading of three Derna residents and dozens of seemingly politically motivated assassinations of judges, public officials, members of the security forces and others. Sarah Leah Watson, Director of HRW Middle East and North Africa, said: "Commanders should understand that they may face domestic or international prosecution for the grave rights abuses their forces are committing."

Various human rights groups and many Iraqi Turkmen themselves accused the Islamic State of carrying Anti-Turkish thoughts, which led to the Iraqi Turkmen genocide.

Amnesty International has held IS responsible for the ethnic cleansing of ethnic and religious minority groups in northern Iraq on a "historic scale". It issued a special report in late 2014 describing how IS has "systematically targeted non-Arab and non-Sunni Muslim communities, killing or abducting hundreds, possibly thousands, and forcing more than 830,000 others to flee the areas it has captured since 10 June 2014". Among these people are Assyrian Christians, Turkmen Shia, Shabak Shia, Yazidis, Kaka'i and Mandaeans, who have lived together for centuries in Nineveh province, large parts of which became under IS's control.

Genocide and other war crimes IS's crimes of murder, ethnic cleansing, enslavement and rape against Shia, Christian,JOINT MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION , European ParliamentMEPs call for urgent action to protect religious minorities against ISIS , European ParliamentHouse Unanimously Passes Fortenberry ISIS Genocide Resolution , Mar 15, 2016 Yazidis"UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria: ISIS is committing genocide against the Yazidis". United Nations - Office of the High Commissioner. 16 June 2016. and various religious minorities within its territories were recognized as a genocide by the European Parliament and U.S. House of Representatives in 2014. In 2017, CNN journalists Jomana Karadsheh and Chris Jackson reported exclusively on the efforts by Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) to bring IS to justice of war crimes committed against Yazidis. There are also many Sunni Muslim victims of IS.

One captured IS fighter boasted about raping over 200 women from Iraq's minority groups and killing over 500 people and claimed he was encouraged to do so by the leadership.

On occasions, IS executed women who refused to have sex with its fighters. In a briefing to the UN Security Council held on 10 May 2021, a UN investigative team stated that IS launched a genocide against Yazidis "as a religious group" during the Sinjar massacre, with the objective of eliminating them "physically and biologically".

Religious and minority group massacres, forced conversion, and expulsion

IS compels people in the areas that it controls to live according to its interpretation of sharia law. There have been many reports of the group's use of death threats, torture and mutilation to compel conversion to Islam, and of clerics being killed for refusal to pledge allegiance to the so-called "Islamic State". IS directs violence against Shia Muslims, Alawites, Assyrian and Armenian Christians, Yazidis, Druze, Shabaks and Mandeans in particular.

IS fighters have targeted Syria's minority Alawite sect. IS and affiliated jihadist groups reportedly took the lead in an offensive on Alawite villages in Latakia Governorate of Syria in August 2013.

Amnesty International has held IS responsible for the ethnic cleansing of ethnic and religious minority groups in northern Iraq on a "historic scale", putting entire communities "at risk of being wiped off the map of Iraq". In a special report released on 2 September 2014, the organization described how IS had "systematically targeted non-Arab and non-Sunni Muslim communities, killing or abducting hundreds, possibly thousands, of individuals and forcing more than 830,000 others to flee the areas it has captured since 10 June 2014". Among these people were Assyrian Christians, Turkmen Shia, Shabak Shia, Kaka'i, Yazidis and Mandaeans, who have lived together for centuries in Nineveh province, large parts of which have come under IS's control.

Among the known killings of religious and minority group civilians carried out by IS are those in the villages and towns of Quiniyeh (70–90 Yazidis killed), Hardan (60 Yazidis killed), Sinjar (500–2,000 Yazidis killed), Ramadi Jabal (60–70 Yazidis killed), Dhola (50 Yazidis killed), Khana Sor (100 Yazidis killed), Hardan area (250–300 Yazidis killed), al-Shimal (dozens of Yazidis killed), Khocho (400 Yazidis killed and 1,000 abducted), Jadala (14 Yazidis killed) and Beshir (700 Shia Turkmen killed), and others committed near Mosul (670 Shia inmates of the Badush prison killed), and in Tal Afar prison, Iraq (200 Yazidis killed for refusing conversion). The UN estimated that 5,000 Yazidis were killed by IS during the takeover of parts of northern Iraq in August 2014. In late May 2014, 150 Kurdish boys from Kobani aged 14–16 were abducted and subjected to torture and abuse, according to Human Rights Watch. In the Syrian towns of Ghraneij, Abu Haman and Kashkiyeh 700 members of the Sunni Al-Shaitat tribe were killed for attempting an uprising against IS control. The UN reported that in June 2014 IS had killed a number of Sunni Islamic clerics who refused to pledge allegiance to it.

Christians living in areas under IS control face four options: converting to Islam, paying a religious levy called the jizya, leaving the caliphate, or death. "We offer them three choices: Islam; the dhimma contract – involving payment of jizya; if they refuse this they will have nothing but the sword", IS said. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of IS till his 2019 demise, further noted that Christians who do not agree with those terms must "leave the borders of the Islamic Caliphate" within a specified deadline. IS had already set similar rules for Christians in Raqqa, once one of Syria's more liberal cities. However, on 29 March 2016, IS issued a decree preventing Christians and Armenians from leaving Raqqa.

On 23 February 2015, in response to a major Kurdish offensive in the Al-Hasakah Governorate, IS abducted 150 Assyrian Christians from villages near Tal Tamr (Tell Tamer) in northeastern Syria, after launching a large offensive in the region.

Kurdish officials have claimed that IS's campaign against Kurdish and Yezidi enclaves, such as Sinjar, are part of an organised Arabization plan.

According to Iraqi security officials, Islamic State militants targeted a football ground, built near a Shiite shrine in the city of Kirkuk. They shot mortar rounds that killed six civilians and injured nine others, on August 24, 2019. In another attack day before, a bike equipped with explosives blasted near a mosque in Shia-majority area of Mussayyib, killing three people and wounding 34.

Shia Muslims

Despite being the religious majority in Iraq, Shia Muslims who predominantly inhabit the country's south were killed in large numbers by IS. By June 2014, IS had already claimed to have killed 1,700 Shia Muslims. IS, attempting to create a Sunni Muslim caliphate, has labelled all Shia Muslims infidels. As a result, they have specifically targeted Shia communities. According to witnesses, after the militant group took the city of Mosul, they divided the Sunni prisoners from the Shia prisoners. 650 Shia prisoners were then taken to another location and executed. Kurdish officials in Erbil have reported similar incidents where Sunni and Shia prisoners were separated and Shia prisoners were killed. Sometimes, Shia were burned alive.

Iraqi Turkmen

Iraqi Turkmen generally never got involved in the Iraqi conflict until the Islamic State began a violent process of persecution against them. They had 200,000 Turkmen displaced, thousands killed, and hundreds still missing. The Iraqi Turkmen Front stated that the attacks on Turkmens were an ethnic cleansing attempt.

Christians