We've reported on the atrocities Islamic State extremists have committed against the LGBT community—hangings, stonings, throwing off buildings.

Now the U.N. is stepping in with an open meeting on August 24, when Iraqi and Syrian nationals targeted by ISIS for being gay will speak to the Security Council.

"This will be a historic meeting," Samantha Power, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., told reporters. "It's the first Security Council meeting on LGBT rights."

Power and Chile's U.N. Ambassador Cristian Barros Melet are sponsoring the event, open to all 193 member nations, to underscore ISIS' strategy of "targeting groups most susceptible to attack."

While the attacks in Iraq and Syria are among the most extreme, a U.N. report from June indicates that at least 76 countries have laws that criminalize and harass people on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity.

h/t: AP