taken - or that in the event of crisis, an appropriate and properly coordinated response can be mounted quickly. The Human Rights Office of United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, has been closely monitoring the human rights situation in Iraq for many years. We produce regular reports to our interlocutors in the Government of Iraq, within the UN system, to members of the international community, and publicly. Until recently, the situation in Iraq, including the on-going armed violence and terrorism, was viewed as problematic and concerning, but the general consensus of opinion among most interlocutors was that a situation of low intensity violence might continue for some time. Perhaps no one could envisage the emergence of a group like ISIL and its murderous policies. However, from the beginning of 2014, our office began to systematically raise the alert level in relation to the deterioration of the security situation in Iraq and the potential for radically increased violence with the growing threat of ISIL and concerns for potential widespread human rights violations along the pattern of what was happening in Syria. Despite information, readily apparent following ISIL’s sweep into Ninewa and the fall of Mosul, suggesting that the Iraqi security forces did not have the capacity to mount an effective security response to the threat posed by ISIL, and that the resources and capacity of government institutions to meet a growing humanitarian crisis were insufficient, some interlocutors within the Government, but particularly among the international community, persisted in the view that the crisis facing the country was something that the Government of Iraq could, and should, deal with. It was only with ISIL’s second advance into areas of Sinjar and Tal Afar in Ninewa Governorate, the overwhelming evidence of mass slaughter threatening the diverse ethnic and religious communities and mass displacement that the international community became fully cognizant of how dire the situation in Iraq had become, and the clear and present danger posed by ISIL not only to Iraq but to the region as a whole. This demonstrates the need for a number of things: better coordination of the information flow between UN agencies operating on the ground, with the Government, and with the international community, but also the need for political will among the international community to address