Thank you, Mrs. President. Omar Farouk Othman, a member of Act for Afrin Root causes of contemporary conflicts involving minorities. In the last decade, many armed conflicts have broken out, particularly in the Middle East, which have brought about numerous calamities and disasters. With more than half a million dead, one million wounded, more than eight million displaced people, and tens of thousands of detainees and missing individuals, the armed conflict in Syria is one of the longest and bloodiest of all violent conflicts. These violent conflicts also have a significant impact on the rights of minorities. The Kurdish-majority region of Afrin in Syria is the clearest illustration of what happens to minorities in areas of armed conflict; more than 70% of its Kurdish population has been displaced, and those who remain face a variety of human rights violations to the point where the region's Kurdish identity may change drastically and permanently unless action is taken on the part of the international community to stop these systematic violations. Here, we will outline the root causes of violent conflicts: 1. Absence of a robust mechanism by the international community (United Nations - Security Council) for direct intervention in areas of armed conflict. 2. Failure to put into effect Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, which provides for international military intervention to end armed conflicts. 3. Conflicting interests of major and regional countries, which contributed to the prolongation of these armed conflicts. 4. Lack of mechanisms to impose democratic regimes on dictatorship-ruled nations. Thank you