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Summary of the current situation of Iraqi minorities ( points submitted to Mr. Miloslav Jenca,UN Assistant Secretary –General for Political Affairs)

• The participation of minorities in public life has not reached the required level, and there is marginalization in many field bodies.
• Political quotas play a major role in shaping public policies.
• Political reality lacks the opportunity for political expression towards demographic changes in minorities areas, as there are no plans to address these unfortunate changes.
• On the other hand , it is important to note the efforts of minorities to protect diversity in many ways , including seeking to change the curriculum, but this trend is fluctuating , slaw, and sometimes no pay attention .
• One of the negative phenomena that undermine the convictions of minorities , is the negative discrimination in legislations and laws, especially against religious minorities, knowing that the law of antidiscrimination and equality has been read first reading in the house of representatives , and we have added many comments on it , and submitted to the Parliament , but I doubt that will be approved during the remaining period of the life of the current house of representatives. Especially since the parliamentary elections will be held on 12 May , in accordance to the judicial decision of the federal court .
• I would also like to point out that the civil society organizations and other civil institutions in the country have led a campaign to change the text of article 26, Paragraph 2, of the unified National Card Act, but they didn’t succeed so far due to the pressure exerted by religious political parties in the Parliament itself.
• In the same context there is no recognition within the constitution of some religious minorities , here I would like to refer to Baha’i religion , despite the fact that they disregard the religious activities of the followers of this religion .
• There is also no recognition of the ethnic , cultural or linguistic facts of some minorities in the constitution , such as Shabak, Kaka’i or Zoroastrians .
• It is also important that the attention to the issuance and broadcast of extremist speeches from time to time threatening the existence of non- Muslim minorities, some of which indirectly under the pretext of the prohibition of Alcohol trade and others things which is prohibited from some Islamist group prospective. And others directly refers to the non-Muslim minorities. This sorts of speeches is fearing minorities in the present and from the future.
• These extremist speeches are destroying all the efforts of the government , local Iraqi and international institutions in achieving the national reconciliation that everyone needs.
• One of the most important challenges that faced by Iraqi minorities is related to their own reality which is characterized by the divisions inside the minorities , the absence of a common vision and a unified position at least on crucial issues.
• There is also a divisions within each minority, political and sectarian conflicts and some minorities suffering from the confiscation of their will in favor of majorities.
• There are legal problems facing the Kurd Failies in the matter of return of the nationality that was dropped

 from many at the time of Saddam regime , as well as difficulties in recovering their confiscated property.

• There is no justice in the quota granted to the minorities, for example, the representation of Ezidies in the parliament is disproportionate to their population, as well as the absence of representation of Armenians, at the national level.
• Regarding the liberated areas of minorities, there is a return , 90% Shabak , 90% Kaka’I , 1l3 Christians and Ezidies , 90% Turkuman . However. Many of these returnees started to leave again his land to the big cities preparing to emigrate due to the delay of the government efforts of reconstruction; the process is often very slow.
• In this context , the international and local humanitarian organization are making clear achievements, as are the relief missions of the churches and some of the countries who started support directly like Hungary, but still that is not enough to be catalyst for survival.
• In other direction, one of the reasons of fear of return is occurrence of minority areas within the geographical range of the so-called (disputed areas) , meaning that there are armed forces ( Mobilization Forces) in there areas, although they are under the command of the commander-in-chief of armed forces of Iraq , but they have political patronages or leaders who carry agendas that are sometimes closed, and try to impose the defacto policy .
• The referendum held on September 25 last year in Iraqi Kurdistan and in some of these areas (disputed areas) imposed another reality and challenges and created a state of anxiety and panic among many of the minorities on the future of their regions, especially that there are areas of minorities administratively under federal authority but it is controlled by Peshmerga, e.i Teleskuf , Alqosh , and others.
• The internal political instability and repeated accusations exchanged between the large political blocs threaten the existence of Iraqi minorities.

         What I mentioned in advance represents the challenges faced Iraqi minorities. If one of the conditions of diagnosis is to address the chances of optimism and strength to improve the situation of minorities, let me stop at the following stations:

• First, there is solidarity and international sympathy with the Iraqi minorities after they were attacked by the terrorists. This is a source of optimism, but its development into a real reality lies in finding a real and practical achievement role through securing the minority areas, security, administratively, politically and developmentally, by reconstructing and liberating the people of these areas from the complex of marginalization, isolation, humiliation and loose waiting.
• Second: The breadth of rights and relief field work in the ranks of minorities and the proud field work, which is carried out in challenge of all difficulties and obstacles and benefiting from the support provided by the international organizations in this regard.
• Third: the presence of the will of Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi in reforming and addressing the spots of corruption, but the situation necessarily requires that these reforms include the areas of minorities because the injustice is complex and multiple and it should first be covered by positive variables. I am here to refer to our involvement in the efforts by the Follow-up and the national reconciliation Committee of the Prime Minister's Office in order to unite the efforts of minorities and find a common vision for them. It was expected to hold a conference in Bertella two months ago in this direction, but the differences that afflict minorities as a group and in one minority has prevented the holding of this conference till now, has been postponed three times, and in contrast the reality of minorities held meetings and dialogues between them contributed to overcoming some of the obstacles and difficulties without reaching to an integrated plan and a unified road map.

But  the clear positive sign is the appearance of the influence of some moderate clerics as well as the deep cultural inheritance Which characterizes the position of Iraqi public opinion in its majority who reject the sectarian, religious and ethnic divisions that call for the principle of citizenship as a basis for the general civil existence, and as example for that the wonderful  national contribution of non - Christian components in Christmas and new year 2018, and thus can be confirmed that the large Iraqi environment is an environment that recognizes diversity and supports it and establishes a true national partnership in the present and future.

                     I pointed to the challenges faced the Iraqi minorities and to the opportunities of optimism till now, It is important that the United Nations move must be to support the minorities in terms of diagnosis which takes into account the face of these challenges and nourish and sustain the civil directions that preserve the demographic diversity of Iraq, rejecting all the bumps of marginalization, isolation and containment and political gain right now. The most important of all is to be right and to have the convince’s instruments for this right.