Amal Clooney sat before the United Nations on Friday and delivered a damning speech on its failure to tackle some of the gravest crimes committed by Isis against the Yazidi community.

The renowned human rights lawyer told delegates gathered that she was "ashamed" more steps had not been taken by the UN against the terror group, which “brags” about the mass murder and enslavement of Yazidi men, women and children in areas of the Middle East under its control.

Clooney was speaking to introduce Nadia Murad, a woman who was captured in northern Iraq in 2014 and trafficked as a sex slave by Isis before eventually escaping. She was one of 5,000 women abducted by fighters as the group swept through territories in Iraq. Many of these women were sold as 'sabia' - slaves, and those who escaped have described brutal gang-rapes and being passed among fighters.

Murad, 23, appeared before the UN in New York in 2015 and spoke of the horrific experiences inflicted upon her by Isis. She will act as an ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking for the UN’s Drugs and Crime body.

Clooney, who is representing Murad and was sat by her side on Friday, is in New York with Murad to meet with representatives from the government in Iraq, the UN and members of the UN Security Council.

The “unimaginable horrors” committed against the minority Yazidis was detailed in an extensive report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) on the Syrian Arab Republic in June.

Murad’s mother and six brothers were among 600 murdered by Isis in one day after her capture. The barbarity she has recalled of her time in captivity was highlighted by Clooney, who delivered a powerful and direct speech that left no uncertainty in its message: the atrocities committed by Isis and detailed by Murad amount to genocide, and not enough has been done to tackle or even address it.

Iraq crisis: Yazidi nightmare on Mount Sinjar Show all 15 1 /15 Iraq crisis: Yazidi nightmare on Mount Sinjar Iraq crisis: Yazidi nightmare on Mount Sinjar Iraq crisis Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Isis in Sinjar town, walk towards the Syrian border, on the outskirts of Sinjar mountain, near the Syrian border town of Elierbeh of Al-Hasakah Governorate Iraq crisis: Yazidi nightmare on Mount Sinjar Iraq crisis Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Isis in Sinjar town, walk towards the Syrian border, on the outskirts of Sinjar mountain, near the Syrian border town of Elierbeh of Al-Hasakah Governorate Iraq crisis: Yazidi nightmare on Mount Sinjar Iraq crisis Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community settle at a camp at Derike, Syria. In the camps here, Iraqi refugees have new heroes: Syrian Kurdish fighters who battled militants to carve an escape route to tens of thousands trapped on a mountaintop Iraq crisis: Yazidi nightmare on Mount Sinjar Iraq crisis A pilot based at RAF Marham entering a Tornado GR4 prior to taking off for the reconnaissance mission over Iraq. Several RAF Tornado jets set off from RAF Marham in Norfolk this afternoon to travel to a "pre-position", from where they will fly to northern Iraq to provide improved surveillance of the situation on the ground. The jets, fitted with Litening III targeting and surveillance pods, will be able to fly over the crisis area to provide intelligence and help with the delivery of humanitarian aid Iraq crisis: Yazidi nightmare on Mount Sinjar Iraq crisis A British Royal Air Force (RAF) Tornado GR4 aircraft equipped with the Litening III pod from RAF Marham, eastern England, on their arrival at RAF Akrotiri Cyprus for their reconnaissance mission over Iraq Iraq crisis: Yazidi nightmare on Mount Sinjar Iraq crisis Aid inside a Royal Air Force (RAF) Hercules C130 J aircraft before being airdropped to civilians in Iraq Iraq crisis: Yazidi nightmare on Mount Sinjar Iraq crisis A Royal Air Force (RAF) Hercules C130 J military transport plane at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. Britain made a third round of airdrops of supplies to aid refugees stranded on a mountain in northern Iraq, officials said, as Tornado fighters arrived at an RAF base in Cyprus preparing to provide surveillance support for the humanitarian effort Iraq crisis: Yazidi nightmare on Mount Sinjar Iraq crisis Royal Air Force (RAF) Tornado GR4 aircraft, flown in from Britain, stand on the tarmac at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus Iraq crisis: Yazidi nightmare on Mount Sinjar Iraq crisis A displaced man helps a woman, both from the minority Yazidi sect fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Isis in Sinjar town, as they make their way towards the Syrian border, on the outskirts of Sinjar mountain, near the Syrian border town of Elierbeh of Al-Hasakah Governorate Iraq crisis: Yazidi nightmare on Mount Sinjar Iraq crisis Iraqis including Turkmen, Shabaks, Kurds, Yezidis and Christians, fleeing from assaults of army groups led by Isis, take shelter at Bahirka Camp in Arbil Iraq crisis: Yazidi nightmare on Mount Sinjar Iraq crisis Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community look for clothes to wear among items provided by a charity organization at the Nowruz camp in Derike, Syria Iraq crisis: Yazidi nightmare on Mount Sinjar Iraq crisis Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community gather for food at the Nowruz camp in Derike, Syria Iraq crisis: Yazidi nightmare on Mount Sinjar Iraq crisis Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community gather for food at the Nowruz camp in Derike, Syria Iraq crisis: Yazidi nightmare on Mount Sinjar Iraq crisis Syrian Kurdish Peshmerga fighters take a sick Iraqi Yazidi woman to the clinic at Nowruz camp in Derike, Syria Iraq crisis: Yazidi nightmare on Mount Sinjar Iraq crisis Sick displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community wait for treatment at a clinic at Nowruz camp in Derike, Syria

She told delegates: “Make no mistake: what Nadia has told us about is genocide, and genocide doesn’t happen by accident. You have to plan it."

Clooney highlighted the disturbing pamphlet distributed by Isis which decreed Yazidi girls could be raped as soon as they have hit puberty and sold in slave markets as they are considered “merely property”. She went on: “This slave market is still running today - just a few hours away by plane.”

Clooney was fiercely critical of the inaction by the UN in the face of the persecution of Yazidis, something she conveyed in her opening remarks.

Young Yazidi girl gives powerful speech at UN

“This is the first time I have spoken in this chamber. I wish I could say I'm proud to be here but I am not. I am ashamed as a supporter of the United Nations that states are failing to prevent or even punish genocide because they find that their own interests get in the way.”

At the end of her eight-minute address, Clooney turned to Murad and apologised on behalf of world leaders for not doing more to help women like her. "I am sorry we have failed you," she said.

"And to those who thought that in their acts, they could destroy you, let them know this: Nadia Murad’s spirit is not broken and her voice will not be silenced, because as of today, Nadia is the United Nations ambassador who will speak for survivors all over the world.”

Her speech is in full below:

“Nadia’s mother was one of 80 older women who were executed and buried in an unmarked grave.

Nadia Murad (Getty Images ) (Getty Images)

“Her brothers were part of a group of 600 murdered in a single day. Make no mistake: what Nadia has told us about is genocide, and genocide doesn’t happen by accident. You have to plan it.

“Before the genocide began two years ago, the Isis resurgence fatwa department studied the Yazidis, and concluded that as a Kurdish-speaking group that did not have a holy book, they were non-believers whose enslavement was a 'firmly established aspect of sharia'. This is why, according to Isis’ warped morality, only Yazidis, unlike other minority groups, can be systematically raped.

“Isis even released a pamphlet entitled 'Questions and Answers on Taking Captives and Slaves' to provide more guidelines, [answering questions like]: ”is it permissible to have intercourse with a female slave who has not reached puberty." [The answer was yes.]

[…]

“This is the first time I have spoken in this chamber. I wish I could say I'm proud to be here but I am not. I am ashamed as a supporter of the United Nations that states are failing to prevent or even punish genocide because they find that their own interests get in the way.

“I am ashamed as a lawyer that there is no justice being done and barely a complaint being made about it. I am ashamed as a woman that girls like Nadia could have their bodies sold and used as battlefields.

“I am ashamed as a human being that we ignore their cries for help. We know that what we have before us is genocide, and we know that it is still ongoing. We know exactly who the perpetrators are. They brag. Isis brags about its crimes online.

“There is no-one more blameless than the young Yazidi girl who has lost everything and who today comes before you and asks for your help. Yet two years on, two years after the genocide began, 3,200 Yazidi women and children are still held captive by Isis and not a single member of Isis has been prosecuted in a court anywhere in the world for crimes committed against the Yazidi. “

[...]

“Nadia and others like her are not seeking revenge, they are seeking justice. The opportunity to face their abusers in an international court at the Hague.

“I am proud to sit beside this young woman whose strength and leadership astounds me. She has defied all the labels that life has given her: orphan, rape victim, slave, refugee. She has instead created new ones. Survivor, Yazidi leader, women’s advocate. Nobel Peace Prize nominee. And now, as of today, Goodwill ambassador.