Prevention of Violence and Protection of the Iraqi Religious Minorities, Agenda Item No:3 Thanks chair for giving me the floor. I am Dr. Hunain Al-Qaddo from Iraq' the chairman of Iraqi Minorities Council(IMC). I speak on Behalf of it. The article 1 and 2 of Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguist Minorities indicate clearly that states shall protect religious and other minorities within their respective territories. Iraqi religious and ethnic minorities, however, have become subject to intimidation, harassment ,killing and displacement as a result of violence committed against them on one hand and failure of the Iraqi security forces to provide protection on the other hand . The security of minority gaups such as Christian , Yezidis, Sabis, Shabak and Trukmen remains a concern . It is regrettable that the security situation has greatly deteriorated in the past months. Bombings and assassinations have become a part of the daily life of Iraqis generally and of minorities particularly. Since the start of Augisi of 201.3 over 50 shabak and more than a hundred Shia Trukmen have been killed by car bombs . In Baashiqa sub-district two car bombs targeted two Shabak villages' (Ortakhrab and Mwafaqiya) resulting in killing and wounding hundreds of innocent civilian people, while violence in Tozkhormato district in disputed areas claimed the life of hundreds . As a result of violence during past years the Christian population in Iraq has nearly been hailed to only 300 thousand ,while the number of Sabis dwindled from 40 thousand to around 15 thousand individuals . Unfortunately , tens of thousands of Christian, Yezidis, Shabak and Trukmen have been displaced and become refugees in their homeland Iraqi