The Assyrian Universal Alliance - Americas Chapter (AUA Americas) welcomes the recent decision by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination urging for the deployment of UN Peacekeeping forces to the Nineveh Plain to establish a safe zone for the return and protection of displaced persons traditionally living in that area (AINA 2014-08-26). The recommendation reflects AUA's advocacy efforts during the Committee's session in Geneva and marks the first time a UN body has joined in endorsing such calls for protection. The decision came under the Committee's Early Warning and Urgent Action procedure, a practice rarely invoked by the 18-member human rights body. The Committee also noted deep concern over ethnic cleansing and an increased risk of genocide within Iraq and requested the Human Rights Council to convene a special session with the aim of establishing a commission of inquiry to investigate those responsible for committing such crimes. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is the group of independent experts mandated to monitor implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by its State parties. Having ratified the Convention in 1970, Iraq underwent its periodic review during the Committee's 85th session in which the decision was issued.