(Sydney) – Australian authorities should ensure that criminal proceedings against three Australian women who were charged on May 7 and 8, 2026, with serious alleged crimes linked to the Islamic State (ISIS) fully respect due process rights, Human Rights Watch said today. The accused are among thirteen Australians—four women and nine children—who returned to Australia after more than seven years of detention without charge in camps in northeast Syria controlled by the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The authorities have charged two of the three women with crimes against humanity for alleged enslavement in Syria of female Yazidis, a people ISIS sought to destroy through acts including killings, sexual slavery, enslavement, and torture. The third was charged with allegedly entering a declared conflict zone and joining ISIS.…