State towards acts of violence and incitement to hatred as an indicator of its fulfilment of responsibility to protect. Ambassador of Citizenship, PAXs initiative/ Harilar, Iraq, Mr. Zuher Lazgeen Mr. Lazgeen began by stressing the situation of minorities in Iraq. He discussed how because of the war, persons belonging to minorities have been kidnapped, killed and trafficked. Furthermore, he elaborated on the causes and roots of this situation. He described how minorities are misunderstood and people hold incorrect views about their beliefs, ideology and ways of living. He discussed how these misconceptions and resulting hatred towards certain minorities, combined with hate speech directed against them, have reached a critical level and have led to tangible violence. He highlighted how education curricula do not include teaching of the history, culture and traditions of different minorities and that ignorance and lack of knowledge about minorities is widespread in the country. He described how minorities are discriminated against on a daily basis in schools, universities, and in many aspects of public life and are not able to counter this discrimination. He highlighted how this has created an environment where minorities accepted their own discrimination. He discussed how discrimination was not tackled at an early stage because there was no mechanism to counter it, which gradually led to atrocity crimes against minorities. He stressed that the lack of participation of minorities in public life also contributed to violence and atrocities. He also highlighted how clan-based and religious belief systems also contribute to discrimination. He concluded by stressing that civil society is playing a strong role by challenging violations of the rights of minorities but formal instruments, which are essential for addressing discrimination at an early stage, such as anti-discrimination laws are non-existent. Discussion The following issues were raised during the discussion under Item III: - The link between discrimination on ethnicity, religion and/or language grounds and extreme poverty and the consequences of such discrimination on fundamental human rights such as land ownership for minorities. - The urgency to identify and act upon those situations where systematic discrimination, exclusion, marginalization and inequality expose minorities to the risk of violence and atrocity crimes and build appropriate legal and policy frameworks upon human rights universal principles. - The importance of genuinely recognizing that the effective participation of persons belonging to minorities in their society contribute towards eradicating discrimination against them and ensuring stable and less prone to violence societies. - The importance of recognizing and addressing multiple forms of discrimination faced by certain persons belonging to minority groups, including women and girls and the importance of paying particular attention to their situation. 10