E/C.12/IRQ/CO/4 24. The Committee recommends that the State party increase its efforts to ensure the basic rights of internally displaced persons, including by effectively implementing existing displacement policies and programmes. It should also ensure that government subsidies reach all displaced persons and embark on other assistance programmes aimed at alleviating the precarious situation of such persons. The Committee also calls on the State party to facilitate the safe return and local integration of internally displaced persons in areas liberated by the Iraqi armed forces, and ensure that returnees have access to basic services. Discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities 25. The Committee is concerned about the: (a) Persistent discrimination faced by minority groups; (b) Emergence of sectarian insurgency in the State party since 2003, leading to increased attacks against minority groups, and the impunity with which such attacks have often been carried out; (c) State party’s failure to enact a law implementing article 125 of the Constitution, which guarantees administrative, political, cultural and educational rights for various groups, and the delay in adopting the draft law on the protection of religious and ethnic minority group rights; (d) Attacks committed by ISIL and affiliated armed groups against minority groups, in particular the risk of genocide faced by the Yazidis (art. 2 (2)). 26. The Committee recommends that the State party take all measures necessary to promote national reconciliation among all ethnic and religious groups, as a matter of priority. To this end, it should: (a) measures; Adopt and implement legislative, policy and awareness-raising (b) Step up its efforts to prevent acts of discrimination against ethnic and religious groups, bring perpetrators to justice and compensate victims; (c) Expedite the enactment of the law implementing article 125 of its Constitution and the adoption of the draft law on the protection of religious and ethnic minority group rights; (d) Intensify its efforts to protect groups and individuals that are particularly vulnerable to attacks by ISIL and affiliated armed groups, including by taking effective measures to bring perpetrators to justice and compensating victims. Equality between men and women 27. The Committee is concerned about the slow pace of legal reform with regard to equality between men and women and the persistence of provisions that discriminate on the basis of sex in the State party’s Nationality Act and Penal Code, among other legal provisions. 28. The Committee recommends that the State party expedite its legal reform with a view to repealing all the remaining provisions in its legislation that discriminate on the basis of sex. 29. The Committee is concerned at the limited representation of women in political affairs and high-level decision-making posts, as well as their very low rate of participation in the labour force. The Committee is also concerned that women’s political participation is 5

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