Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights on item V 9th session of the Forum on Minority Issues - ohchr 24/25 November 2016 Unites Nations - Geneva Thank you Chairman. Religious minorities in the Middle East are going through a particularly difficult crisis which threatens civilisations and years of co-existence that this region has previously known. Minorities, indeed, are currently facing an enemy on the ground, be it through systematic violations of human rights, freedom to express their religion, or use social and economic rights. Egypt, Syria and Iraq present serious grave cases in which discrimination against religious minorities has been practiced since January 2011 and the revolution Egyptian. We have seen the removal of the Muslim Brotherhood from the government, we are all aware of that, however what we are not aware of are the repercussions of such action. Currently civil society and religious minorities are paying the price of such political action. In addition, minorities are outside of all political decision-making and they are the victims of unconstitutional measures. In addition, some amendments to the constitution and laws have allowed the rights of the minorities to be hindered and they are threatened day after day. The increase in violence has been seen today and can be seen everyday. This is why we need to intervene, protecting victims from violence and allowing them to live a dignified life and to go home is most important. And secondly, compensation should be given to victims with the establishment of the commission to calculating losses of the victims, be they material or in terms of life. Protect the culture of victims, allow them to carry out their cultural activities that disseminate the values of tolerance, step up education and mass media campaigns to strengthen citizenship. Thank you.