E/C.12/1/Add.17 page 7 37. The Committee, while being aware that the embargo imposed on Iraq creates extremely difficult conditions with respect to the availability of food, medicines and medical articles, recommends that the Government take all necessary measures, to the maximum extent of its available resources, to address the needs of the population, and in particular to the most vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly and nursing mothers, with respect to article 12 of the Covenant. 38. With respect to articles 13 to 15 of the Covenant, the Committee reiterates the recommendations it addressed to the State party in its concluding observations adopted upon the consideration of Iraq’s second periodic report on these articles (E/C.12/1994/6, paras. 15-19). 39. Finally, the Committee recommends that the concerns expressed in the present concluding observations, as well as the issues raised during the discussion of the third periodic report which remained unanswered, be addressed in the State party’s fourth periodic report, and it encourages the State party to disseminate widely the present concluding observations adopted by the Committee following its consideration of the State party’s third periodic report. -----