In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
Mr. President,
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,
Yesterday participants, expert ladies and gentlemen, representatives of states, minorities, and civil society
organizations spoke in detail on the numerous issues, obstacles, and various forms of oppression numerous
minorities are subjected to in the framework of the criminal justice system in numerous countries and their
regions. We all concluded that discrimination, marginalization, exposure to violence and harm are some of
the prevailing practices, which people belonging to minorities face when going through the criminal justice
system. This was confirmed by the moving and painful testimonies of victims of these violations, presented
by those who faced them with courage, and I salute them for it. Allow me to specifically mention here
Nadia, the Yazidi girl, who stirred numerous questions about the international justice system and its
competence to protect minorities not only facing the official institutions, but also terrorist groups.
In this regard, I thank the special rapporteur on Minorities issues for organizing this Forum that opened a
space for representatives of minorities to draw the attention of the representatives of the states and the
UN agencies to the violations, injustices, and transgressions, which did not receive attention nor enough
concern within reform and development programs implemented for the advancement of the criminal justice
system.
In response to these challenges, I begin by saying that it is not possible for us to talk about warding off
these violations against minorities or preventing them without talking about the necessity for programs of
strategic and comprehensive penal reform, which concerned states [should] adopt to improve the justice
system as a whole, and which serve as a prerequisite for [the justice system’s] success. [Further, the
necessity of] an accountable political will at the highest level, and allocation human and material resources
to guarantee the application of these programs in practice, whose effect can be measured on the rights of
all members, which pass through the criminal justice system including minorities. [All of this] taking into
account the international standards of human rights, and especially guarantees of non-discrimination, and
fair and effective standards of justice administration.
There is no guarantee for the rights of a certain group, if the system is not inclusive of the rights of all,
who deal with it.
It is on us to recognize the existence of the numerous problems and challenges most criminal justice
systems in the world still face, which need effort and work by all the official and non-official institutions. I
am presenting some of the problems and challenges based on the divisions mentioned in the report of the
special rapporteur on minorities rights, which are classified under different items recommended to this
forum:
First le ve l: On the availability of and providing an inclusive database , from which to derive
indicators reflecting the current situation, indicating any deficiency in the criminal justice system and its
process. In numerous countries we find that the available databases, if found, are lacking numerous