Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders - January 2016
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Michel Forst
19 January 2016
Introduction
1. The present document is submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Michel Forst, to the Human Rights Council, pursuant to resolution 25/18 of the Human Rights Council. It contains observations on the communications concerning specific cases addressed by the Special Rapporteur to States.
2. The cases raised by the Special Rapporteur in this addendum include urgent appeals, allegations letter and other letters, as well as press releases issued between 1 December 2014 and 30 November 2015.
3. The report also contains observations on the responses received from States until 31 January 2016. A small number of replies received before 31 January 2015 could not be included because translation of these documents was not available at the time of finalising the report. Most of the responses by States refer to cases raised by the Special Rapporteur during the period December 2014 to November 2015. However, responses received during the reporting period to cases addressed by him in earlier reporting periods have also been included. These communications are marked with a footnote in the text.
4. For ease of reference, cases have been grouped by region, with countries within each region listed alphabetically according to their names in English. Each communication is referenced in one of six categories: urgent appeal (UA), allegation letter (AL), other letter (OL), joint urgent appeal (JUA), joint allegation letter (JAL) and joint other letter (JOL). This is followed by the date the communication was issued, as well as the case number and the date of the State’s reply. Where a State’s reply was to merely acknowledge receipt of a sent communication, this is indicated with an (A) after the reply date. The electronic version of the present document has both of these items hyperlinked, and clicking on them will open the communication sent and the reply from the concerned State, respectively. In bold, is a short reference to the allegations contained in the communication in the language of submission. Press releases (PR) published during the reporting period are referenced under the communications, with a hyperlink to the statement.
5. The Special Rapporteur is grateful to all States that have transmitted substantive responses to his communications. He considers responses to his communications as an important part of cooperation by States with his mandate. He trusts that States that have not provided substantive responses to his communications will do so shortly.
6. The annex of the report contains information on the communications procedure and guidelines on the submission of complaints to the Special Rapporteur.
