DISCRIMINATION WOMEN AND GIRLS Across the region, women and girls faced discrimination in law and practice, including in relation to the rights to freedom of movement, expression, bodily autonomy, inheritance, divorce, political office and employment opportunities. Gender-based violence remained common and perpetrators enjoyed impunity. In some countries, such violence increased and protections for women weakened. In Algeria and Iraq, the law allows rapists to escape prosecution by marrying their victim. Morocco rejected UPR recommendations to criminalize marital rape. “Honour killings” of women and other femicides continued including in Algeria and Tunisia. In the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, the regional government allowed perpetrators of domestic violence to escape prosecution and failed to adequately protect survivors. In Iran, authorities intensified their crackdown on women and girls who defied compulsory veiling by introducing new policies severely violating their social, economic, cultural, civil and political rights. Punitive measures included sending 1 million SMS warnings to women threatening the confiscation of their vehicles and referring thousands to the judiciary. In Yemen, the Huthi de facto authorities and armed groups imposed restrictions on women’s movement and banned them from travelling without a male guardian or their guardian’s written approval. In Egypt, the authorities failed to adequately prevent sexual and gender-based violence by state and non-state actors, amid increased reports of women killed by family members or rejected suitors. Meanwhile, women were prosecuted for speaking out against sexual violence or on “morality” grounds. LGBTI PEOPLE People across the region were arrested and prosecuted for their sexual orientation or gender identity, and many were given harsh sentences if convicted of consensual same-sex sexual relations. Attacks on the rights of LGBTI people intensified in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya and Tunisia. In Lebanon, authorities incited violence against gay and lesbian people. In response, 18 media organizations jointly condemned the crackdown on freedoms; and a coalition of 15 Lebanese and international organizations urged Lebanon to scrap proposed anti-LGBTI laws. In Libya, the Internal Security Agency in Tripoli and other militias and armed groups arbitrarily arrested individuals for their actual or perceived sexual orientation and/or gender identity, and aired their torture-tainted “confessions”. Iraqi authorities ordered media to replace the term “homosexuality” with “sexual deviance”. In Tunisia, courts handed down two-year prison sentences under provisions that criminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations. In Jordan, some parliamentarians spearheaded an anti-LGBTI campaign, calling for same-sex sexual relations to be criminalized, triggering hate speech and threats against LGBTI individuals and supporters. RACIAL, ETHNIC, NATIONAL AND RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES Across the region, members of racial, ethnic, national and religious communities and minorities faced discrimination in law and practice, including in relation to their rights to worship, enjoy equal access to employment and healthcare, and live free of persecution and other serious human rights abuses. Israel continued to entrench its extreme form of discrimination – a system of apartheid – via oppression and domination over Palestinians through territorial fragmentation, segregation and control, dispossession of land and property, and denial of economic and social rights. This was achieved by the systematic commission of a wide range of human rights violations, including 64 The State of the World’s Human Rights