Delegates I am privileged to work in Iraq as the representative of the High Commissioner for Human Rights where the situation is particularly dire in relation to the protection of civilians owing to on-going armed violence and terrorism. The Iraqi population is extremely diverse in terms of ethnicity and religion. The three larger groups are Kurds, Shi’a Arabs and Sunni Arabs, but Iraq also has communities of Turkomen, Yezidi, Shabaks, Armenians, Bahá’ís, Black Iraqis, Chaldo-Assyrians and other Christians, Circassians, Faili Kurds, Jews, Kaka’i, Palestinians, Kawliyah, and Sabian Mandaeans. Minorities are found all throughout Iraqi territory; while the majority are in the borderland areas between the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the rest of the country, they are found also around Khanaqin, Baghdad, and in areas of the south of the country, such as Basra. Currently, the so-called “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” or “ISIL” with its extremist takfiri doctrine has perpetrated gross and systematic violations of human rights against all Iraq’s people that have amounted to crimes against humanity, war crimes, and possibly genocide. ISIL has directly and systematically targeted Iraq’s various diverse ethnic and religious communities for a range of serious human rights violations and crimes, including the direct targeting of civilians in conduct of operations, murder, physical and sexual assault, robbery, wanton destruction of property, destruction of places of religious or cultural significance, forced conversions, denial of access to basic humanitarian services, and forced expulsions. ISIL’s actions appear to be part of a deliberate and systematic policy that aims to suppress, permanently expel, or in some instances, destroy those communities within areas of its control. There are currently 1.8 to 2 million Iraqi citizens, many of them members of Iraq’s minority communities, who have been internally displaced and whose humanitarian situation remains of critical importance – as does saving the lives of those who continue to suffer in areas under the control of the Da’esh. ISIL and its actions, if not quickly stemmed, risks the permanent destruction of diverse ethnic and religious communities, not just in Iraq but in large areas of the Middle East. The origins of the current conflict in Iraq are longstanding and very complex.