Alliance for Minority Rights-AFM Thank you Madame Chair. It is my honor to speak to you today on behalf of the Alliance for Minority Rights. This session concerns itself with the amplification of minority voices. In regard to the Kurdish people, however, we must first ask how we can end the suppression of Kurdish voices. In Iran, freedom of speech is generally not valued by the authorities, and instead, regularly punished by death. The Kurdish population is disproportionately affected by this, as could be seen most prominently in the aftermath of the unlawful and brutal killing of [inaudible]. In Turkey, democratic standards have deteriorated almost entirely over the last decade. The Kurdish people are however once again disproportionately affected as numerous Kurdish politicians have been prosecuted. Additionally, Turkey has repeatedly engaged in military attacks against the Kurdish population of northern Syria and northern Iraq. The Iraqi Constitution provides for the autonomy of the Kurdistan region, yet that autonomy is slowly being eroded. Just last year, the Supreme Court issued two judgments stripping the Kurdish authorities of the right to oversee their own elections, as well as the responsibility to pay their own civil servants. The payment of Kurdish civil servants has since become completely unreliable. While the transitional government of Syria has reached an agreement with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces regarding, among other issues, the autonomous region and a nation-wide ceasefire, said agreement has already been broken by the government on several occasion, most notably through attacks on the Kurdish people as well as other minorities. We therefore call upon the Special Rapporteur on minority issues to prepare a report on the situation of the Kurdish people in Iran, Turkey, Iraq, and Syria, and we furthermore call upon the international community to aid in the Kurdish people’s fight for self-determination. Thank you.