Communications Report of Special Procedures – HRC 21st session – Communications and replies received from States and other entities (excerpts)

Communications Report of Special Procedures^*

Communications sent, 16 March to 31 May 2012;
Replies received, 16 May to 31 July 2012

Joint report by the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context; the Working Group on arbitrary detention; the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia; the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights; the Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances; the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice; the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights; the Special Rapporteur on the right to food; the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief; the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers; the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples; the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran; the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants; the Independent Expert on minority issues; the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar; the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967; the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance; the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences; the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism; the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children; Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation & guarantees of non-recurrence; the Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation; and the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences 

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 ^* The present report is circulated as received  

I. Introduction

1. Special procedures are mandated by the Human Rights Council to report to it and for some mandates also to the General Assembly on their activities (see Appendix I).

2. At the fifteenth annual meeting of special procedures, held in Geneva from 23 to 27 June 2008, mandate holders supported the periodic issuance of a joint communications report to prevent inconsistencies among mandate holders reporting on the same communications to the Council; avoid duplication and rationalize documentation; allow the examination of cross-cutting human rights issues; and ensure that the content of communications and any follow-up would feed into the universal periodic review process more effectively (A/HRC/10/24, para 34-35). In 2009, the sixteenth annual meeting of special procedures mandate holders decided that a joint communications report would be prepared (cf. A/HRC/12/47, para 24-26), with this decision being reconfirmed by the seventeenth annual meeting of special procedures in 2010. Mandate holders decided that the report should contain summaries of communications, and statistical information (A/HRC/15/44, para. 26-27).

3. The Outcome of the review of the work and functioning of the Human Rights Council calls on the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to maintain information on special procedures in a comprehensive and easily accessible manner, and encourages the use of modern information technology to reduce the circulation of paper (A/HRC/RES/16/21, Annex, para. 29 and 60).

4. The report strengthens transparency, efficiency and reduces documentation and related costs. Short summaries of allegations communicated to the respective State or other entity are included in the report, and the communications sent and responses received are accessible electronically through hyperlinks.

5. Communications are reproduced in the language in which they were sent. Replies received in Arabic, Chinese or Russian are included with translations into English, where available.

6. This report covers all urgent appeals and letters of allegations sent by special procedures mandate holders between 16 March and 31 May 2012 and all replies received between 16 May and 31 July 2012. Communications sent before 16 March 2012 are reported in A/HRC/20/30, A/HRC/19/44 and A/HRC/18/51 respectively.

7. The report also includes replies received between 16 May and 31 July 2012, relating to communications sent by special procedures mandate holders before 16 March 2012. Some of these replies supplement information communicated earlier by the respective State.

8. The present report contains urgent appeals sent by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and joint urgent appeals sent by them together with other mandates. It does not contain other types of communications issued by these mandates, processed according to their own distinctive procedures, which will continue to be reported exclusively in the annual reports of these two working groups.

9. The names of some alleged victims have been obscured in order to protect their privacy and prevent further victimization. Names of concerned victims who would otherwise have their identities protected are mentioned only when the concerned individual has expressively consented or requested to include his or her name in the public report. In the original communications, the full names of the alleged victims were provided to the Government concerned. Names of alleged perpetrators have systematically been blackened out in State replies to preserve the presumption of their innocence.

10. In preparing the statistics included in this report, uniform reporting periods have been used, reflecting all communications sent between 16 March and 31 May 2012, and responses received in relation to these communications until 31 July 2012.

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A. Communications sent between 16 March and 31 May 2012 and replies received by 31 July 2012 in relation to them

11. Communications are sorted in chronological order. Copies of the full text of the communications sent and Government replies received may be accessed from the electronic version of this report available on the website of the Human Rights Council. Some names of individuals or other information have been rendered anonymous or otherwise unidentifiable.

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