A/HRC/44/41/Add.1 D. Camp closures and consolidation 27. During the second half of 2019, the Government of Iraq closed and consolidated camps by closing underutilized sections of camps and relocating residents within camps in several governorates, such as Anbar, Ninewa and Salah al-Din, often without any coordination with camp management and humanitarian actors providing camps with services or sufficient notice being given to camp residents. The Special Rapporteur was informed of instances where internally displaced persons were transported to their governorates of origin or relocated to other camps against their will, without receiving accurate information about their destination, and without adequate support being provided to receive them at the destination. Armed military and security actors have reportedly entered camps despite the civilian and humanitarian character of camps, screening the population and making arrests while disregarding procedural safeguards. As a result of the camp closures and consolidations, people were returned to areas that were unsafe or did not offer suitable conditions to receive them, and many underwent secondary displacement to camps in other governorates or informal settlements. Uncertainty about camp closures and consolidation has also posed challenges when providing education services in camps. 28. While the significant return flows over recent years and the reduced number of new displacements might require the consolidation of some camps in order to optimize resources, such decisions require a careful assessment of factors specific to each camp, in consultation with stakeholders and internally displaced persons themselves, and in accordance with the Principled Returns Framework. Camp closures and consolidation should only proceed when they ensure returns that are voluntary, informed, safe, sustainable and dignified; internally displaced persons should not be returned to locations with conditions that could result in secondary displacement or risks to their safety and security. The right of internally displaced persons to decide on durable solutions (namely, return, integration in the area of displacement or settlement elsewhere) must be respected. V. Particularly vulnerable groups A. Displaced ethnic and religious minorities 29. While ethnic and religious tensions, often marked by discrimination, persecution and violence against minority groups, have long existed in Iraq, the targeting of minorities by ISIL reached extreme levels of brutality (see A/HRC/34/53/Add.1). With its extremist interpretation of Islam, ISIL committed atrocities, including summary executions, torture, abductions, forced religious conversions and sexual violence, including rape, child/forced marriage, sexual slavery and trafficking in women and girls, against minorities that it perceived as infidels or heretics. It also looted, seized and destroyed their cultural sites, places of worship and properties, leading to the displacement of ethnic and religious minorities in large numbers. 30. Several minority groups, or components of Iraqi society as many prefer to be called, such as Christians, Kaka’e, Shabaks, Sabean-Mandaeans, Turkmen and Yazidis, were severely affected by violence and displacement. The crimes committed by ISIL against the Yazidis have been recognized as amounting to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. 11 At the same time, there have also been allegations of human rights violations perpetrated by Iraqi security forces and pro-government forces against civilians and fighters, including those belonging to ethnic and religious minorities, in the context of military operations and antiterrorism measures. 31. Ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq have suffered enormous losses and violations, and many of them have lived in displacement for many years now. They recall the destruction of their homes and the physical and social conditions that prevent them from resuming their 11 See Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, “‘They came to destroy’: ISIS Crimes against the Yazidis”, conference room paper (available from www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/IICISyria/Pages/Documentation.aspx), para. 201; and A/HRC/28/18, para. 78. 7