Ms Sanaa Al Neamat on item V 9th session of the Forum on Minority Issues - ohchr 24/25 November 2016 Unites Nations - Geneva Thank you Chairman. My name is Sanaa Al Neamat, I come from Sinjar in Iraq. My only dream was to study at university, to serve my country and humanity before I was kidnapped and my family, my parents, my sisters, and my brothers; we were abducted by Daesh because we are Yezidis. I am now before you in this forum in order to share with you what I lived through on behalf of the Yezidi people that are subject to genocide in the eyes of everyone. There are many young women and girls that are still in the hands of Daesh. The German government defended us and we are grateful to them for that. After Daesh invaded Sinjar 2014 after taking control of the Yezidi Shabak region of […], the Yezidi men were massacred, women and children were abducted. We were held hostage by a wild group for 4 months. With my sisters I fled however we didn’t have contact with any other members of my family. We haven’t had contact with them and they are still held prisoners by Daesh. As you know, women and young girls are being sold in slave markets. Daesh is orchestrating all of these violations in addition when Daesh invaded our village we were obliged to wear a veil to pray as Muslims, we were tortured and were tortured psychologically; all forms fo violations were committed. There were systematic rape, sexual assault. This was carried out by soldiers that arrived in our village like savages. There were all forms of inhumane conduct against us. The situation was terrible. That is why, in conclusion, I would like to call on the international community to ensure and uphold the respect for the rights of minorities, we need to uphold human rights of all particularly of minorities. I call on us all and the international community to bring an end to this human tragedy that is being unravelled under you eyes, it is important for the UN and the free world to give full attention to the case of the Yezidis; to release women and young girls and all Yezidi prisoners in the hands of Daesh. We need to bring an end to this modern form of slavery that we are currently seeing. Likewise we need to protect certain regions and put them under international protection [Chairman has interrupted].