The group of boys, consisting of boys aged 12-16 stared at the school walls blankly for years. Wondering why it was never renovated. Why it looked the same as it did more than 40 years ago. Did they not have the right to redecorate their school? They decided it was time to change the way the wall looked. With their graffiti and markers they wrote slogans they had learnt from children in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. They demanded change.

With that they all laughed nervously at their bravery and returned home feeling somehow liberated; a feeling children only dreamed they had in Syria. Little did they know they had to pay for that sensation. When the sun went down and sleep paralyzed all sensations, heavy footsteps were heard near the old school walls. Every single boy who saw, drew or even supported the slogans on the wall was awoken violently that night. The boys were dragged out of their homes by large armed men wearing uniforms. Their parents screamed and shoved the armed men helplessly. They were paying the price for years of silence.

Unable to understand their crime the boys cried as they were put together in small pickups and jeeps. They were dragged to small humid cells and beaten by large men. A kick in the rib for contemplating change; a blow in the face for asking for change; and a crack in the spine for feeling liberated. They sat in their cells for weeks, beaten and humiliated on a daily basis. As a final warning, their nails were yanked out of their fingers to teach them to never draw on the old wall.

Whoever survived the torture was later returned home, swollen and crushed. The dead were lucky to have never lived life to see the fate of the Syrian children in the future.

Family members and friends of the young boys swarmed the streets of the town of Daraa demanding justice be brought to those who tortured and killed their children. No one listened to them. Friends of friends and passerby’s later joined the angry group, forming a small demonstration. No one listened to their demands. The demonstration grew as more people were familiar with the recent events. There was finally a response. Live bullets and tear gas forced the crowds to split up the demonstrations temporarily. The demonstrations grew larger as angry crowds demanded for nothing but change and were not receiving it. The response was once again bullets and tear gas, however this time the bullets hit flesh. As more blood was spilt, the crowds grew more furious and larger.

The word about the demonstrations reached other provinces like Homs, Douma, Idlib and Damascus suburbs. Touched by the bravery of the little boys in Daraa, more little boys followed their example and drew on old walls. Demonstrations grew larger, demands progressed. People no longer wanted change and reformations; they wanted the complete removal of the old. They wanted Bashar Al Assad and his government to resign. While his grip tightened on his throne, more blood was spilt in demonstrations and more people grew aware of the situation.

The question is, what happened to the children? Did the government learn from their mistakes? Did they stop child torture and imprisonment? On the contrary, after the boys in Daraa, Hamza alkhateeb fell victim to their torture. His genitals mutilated, his body bruised from blows, arms dented with bullet holes and burns from cigarettes, and bones crushed. Him and thousands of children in Syria are paying the price for desiring what the boys in Daraa desired.

This revolution was ignited by the children, carried out by the children, and will be extinguished by the children.

B’Tselem said that since November 2009, it has received testimonies from dozens of Palestinian residents of the Bethlehem and al-Khalil, most of them minors, saying that they were subjected to threats and violence, sometimes amounting to torture, during their interrogation at the police station at Gush Etzion.

The testimonies describe interrogations in which the minors were forced to confess to alleged offenses, mostly stone-throwing.

The report included the testimony of a minor, aged 14 from Husan in Bethlehem. He said “The interrogator made me go into a room. He grabbed my head and started banging it against the wall. Then he punched me, slapped me and kicked my legs. The pain was immense, and I felt like I couldn’t stand any longer.”

“Then he started swearing at me. He said filthy things about me and about my mother. He threatened to rape me, or perform sexual acts on me, if I didn’t confess to throwing stones,” the child added.

He said: “His threats really scared me, because he was very cruel and it was just the two of us in the room. I remembered what I’d seen on the news, when British and American soldiers raped and took photos of naked Iraqis.”

B’Tselem reported that until July 2013 its field researchers collected 64 testimonies from residents of eight communities in the southern West Bank who reported such incidents. “Fifty-six of them were minors at the time of their interrogation.”

“We are seriously concerned over reported acts of killings, torture, arbitrary detention, gender-based violence, enforced disappearances, ‘mob justice’ and the pervasive climate of insecurity and the absence of the rule of law which have prevailed in the country in the last five months,” the human rights experts said, urging authorities to take immediate steps to put an end to all human rights violations and ensure there is no impunity for the perpetrators.

Violence erupted this past December in CAR – which has been marked by decades of instability and fighting – when the Séléka rebel coalition launched a series of attacks. A peace agreement was reached in January, but the rebels again seized the capital, Bangui, in March, forcing President François Bozizé to flee. At present, CAR is governed by a National Transitional Council headed by Michel Djotodia and a transitional government formed in June.

“There have been a number of killings, sometimes in retaliation for incidents of ‘mob justice’ against members of the Séléka coalition. Some 46 cases are allegedly documented,” said the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns. “I call for a thorough, transparent and independent investigation of all suspected cases of arbitrary executions to identify and bring to justice those responsible.”

The Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Méndez, warned that “torture seems to be widespread in the country,” and called on authorities to make sure that every allegation of torture or of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment is investigated by law enforcement officers.

Rashida Manjoo, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, stressed that there have been numerous cases of sexual abuse and rape reported in all of the localities that Séléka combatants have passed through.

“The State has a responsibility to exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and punish acts of violence against women, whether those acts are perpetrated by the State or by private persons,” Ms. Manjoo said. “Women and girls must be provided with access to medical, psychological, social and other assistance as well as to effective mechanisms of justice and to just and effective remedies for the harm that they have suffered.”

The UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances said it had also received allegations that a number of civilians as well as officers and soldiers of the official army (FACA) had been abducted by armed Séléka groups. On 14 April, a staff sergeant of the amphibious battalion and a first class soldier of the ex-presidential guard were reportedly arrested and brought to an unknown destination.

“Any act of enforced disappearance is an offence to human dignity and no circumstances whatsoever may be invoked to justify this heinous crime,” the Working Group underscored.

Special rapporteurs are appointed by the Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.

Human Rights Watch researchers visited the State Security and Military Intelligence facilities in Raqqa, now under the de facto control of local armed opposition groups, in late April 2013.

Local opposition leaders with the support of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces and neutral international experts should safeguard potential evidence of torture and arbitrary detention in security forces centers in opposition-controlled areas, Human Rights Watch said.

“The documents, prison cells, interrogation rooms, and torture devices we saw in the government’s security facilities are consistent with the torture former detainees have described to us since the beginning of the uprising in Syria,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

“Those in control of Raqqa need to safeguard the materials in these facilities so the truth can be told and those responsible held accountable.”

In the State Security facility, Human Rights Watch researchers observed on the ground floor and in the basement, rooms that appeared to be detention cells.

Among the documents were what appeared to be lists of security force members who had worked there. Human Rights Watch researchers also saw a “bsat al-reeh” torture device in the facility, which former detainees have said has been used to immobilize and severely stretch or bend limbs.

Several former detainees held at other intelligence facilities in Syria have described to Human Rights Watch how security guards used “bsat al-reeh” torture devices in detention facilities across the country. They tie a detainee down to a flat board, sometimes in the shape of a cross, so that he is helpless to defend himself. In some cases, former detainees said guards stretched or pulled their limbs or folded the board in half so that their face touched their legs, causing pain and further immobilizing them.

Among the reams of documents and case files Human Rights Watch researchers saw in the Military Intelligence facility in Raqqa were some that appeared to list all of Raqqa’s college graduates, suggesting that they were of interest to the security branch by virtue of their college education.

Researchers also observed three solitary confinement cells and one group detention cell in the right half of the first floor of the facility.

Human Rights Watch researchers interviewed five people formerly held by Military Intelligence in Raqqa, who said that security forces detained and interrogated them there. They said that the security services questioned them about lawful activities, such as participating in peaceful demonstrations, providing relief assistance to displaced families, defending detainees, and providing emergency assistance to injured demonstrators. They believed that they were detained for these lawful activities, making their detention arbitrary.

Human Rights Watch has repeatedly documented widespread violations by Syrian government security forces and officials, including enforced disappearances, torture, and arbitrary and incommunicado detentions of peaceful protesters, activists, humanitarian assistance providers, and doctors.

Human Rights Watch has repeatedly urged the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

On January 14, a letter was sent to the Security Council on behalf of 58 countries calling for an ICC referral. The Security Council has taken no action in response.

“Learning the truth about the role intelligence services have played in spying on and terrorizing Syrians will enable them to guard against these abuses in the future,” Houry said.

“But for Syrians to learn the truth once the conflict ends, it is vital even under the tough conditions of war to preserve the potential evidence of the security forces’ role.”

In a post published to the Internet, the writer known as Heba El-Shamiri revealed that the reason she had been missing for several years was because she was imprisoned. She stated that the name she is known by is a pseudonym she uses and that her real name is Hanan El-Meshadani. She added that she is a doctor and not a journalist.

“If her allegations are true, then we are facing a serious violation of human rights and a crime that must not be tolerated,” stated ANHRI, “the writer said she was imprisoned for exercising her right to freely express her opinions and criticize the government of her country. It is not clear whether her imprisonment followed legal procedures or whether she was illegaly jailed, which would add enforced disappearance to the list of crimes allegedly committed against her.”

ANHRI added, “Although the Iraqi government’s record with regards to press freedom and attacks on journalists places Iraq among the most dangerous countries for the press, we will not rush to condemn the government based on allegations that have not been investigated yet. However, we do emphasize that these allegations are serious and require urgent attention and a neutral and transparent investigation in order to reveal the truth.”

ANHRI calls on the Iraqi government to quickly investigate the circumstances of imprisoning El-Meshadani and to publish the details of her trial and allow observers from inside and outside Iraq to participate in the fact-finding committee digging into allegations of rape and torture. The organisation repeats its previous demands of the Iraqi authorities, asking it to respect the Iraqi Constitution and the international treaties of which Iraq is a signatory.

Omar Aziz, 64, the peaceful activist, died on February 16 in Harasta military hospital, a relative told Human Rights Watch. A released detainee provided information about the possible second death of Ayham Ghazzoul, 26, a human rights activist in Military Intelligence branch 215 in Kafr Suseh, Damascus in November 2012. Security Forces had detained both activists in November.

“Aziz’s death, and Ghazzoul’s feared death are yet another reminder of the need to immediately lift the veil of secrecy over Syria’s prisons,” said Sarah Leah Whitson Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “How many more deaths in custody before the Security Council requires Syria to open up its detention centers?”

Human Rights Watch also expressed concern about the well-being of other activists, on the basis of evidence from fellow detainees and relatives, and the fact that in some cases they have been held by security forces incommunicado for months. Many of those being held are feared to have been subjected to torture.

They include Mazen Darwish, president of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), who was detained by the same Mezze branch of Air Force intelligence on February 16, 2012; Bassel Khartabil (also known as Bassel Safadi),a Syrian-Palestinian software engineer active in developing open source programs for accessible internet, detained by Military Intelligence on March 15, 2012; and Khalil Maatouk a prominent human rights lawyer abducted on October 12 while driving to his office, and believed to be in the custody of State Security in Kafr Suseh, Damascus.

A relative of Aziz told Human Rights Watch that on February 16 he was transported from ‘Adra Central Prison to the Harasta military hospital in the Damascus suburbs where he died. The cause of death was heart complications caused by high blood pressure, from which Aziz suffered before he was detained, and for which he was taking medication.

However, a witness who saw Aziz in ‘Adra, said that his physical condition had deteriorated significantly since Air Force Intelligence arrested him at his home on November 20. Air Force Intelligence held Aziz incommunicado at their facility in Mezze, Damascus until February 12, when they transferred him to ‘Adra.

The witness said that Aziz was incredibly thin, having lost more than 30 pounds, and that Aziz had said that while he was held in the Air Force Intelligence facility, he had suffered severe ill treatment, including being kept incommunicado in a 4-by-4-meter cell with 85 other people without adequate room to sleep, subjected to cold temperatures, fed poor quality and insufficient food, and told that his family was being detained with him. Aziz told the witness that he had not been physically tortured, and that he had been seen by a doctor and regularly given his blood pressure medication. Aziz’s relative told Human Rights Watch that the family learned he had died on February 16 from one of his co-detainees in ‘Adra. The detainee told them that Aziz was transported to the Harasta military hospital at 1:00 a.m. that morning. Hospital personnel told Aziz’s family that he died shortly after arrival. No representative of the Syrian government contacted Aziz’s family to inform them that he died in custody. Instead, relatives visited Harasta military hospital and searched for Aziz before confirming that he was dead.

Aziz, a 64-year-old husband and father of three, moved back to Syria in 2011 from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he was working for a computer company. A relative told Human Rights Watch that after the uprising began, in March 2011, Aziz began working with an informal group of activists to deliver humanitarian assistance to the Damascus suburbs. He was detained at his home on November 20 by armed Air Force Intelligence agents wearing civilian clothing.

A recently released inmate told Ghazzoul’s family that he saw him die in the Military Intelligence branch 215 facility in Kafr Suseh, Damascus, on November 9. The inmate said the death was from wounds sustained on November 5, when Ghazzoul was detained and beaten by members of the National Students Union (NSU), a pro-government student body, and two shabiha who were transporting him to the Military Intelligence detention facility. Despite repeated requests for information from his family, the Syrian government failed to provide any information about Ghazzoul’s well-being or whereabouts.

Human Rights Watch has repeatedly documented widespread violations by Syrian government security forces and officials, including enforced disappearances, use of torture, and arbitrary and incommunicado detentions of, among others, peaceful protesters, activists, humanitarian assistance providers, and doctors. In particular, Human Rights Watch documented widespread ill-treatment and torture at the Air Force Intelligence facility in Mezze headed by Major General Jamil Hassan and the director of its investigative branch, Brig. Gen. Abdul Salam Fajr Mahmoud and in Military Intelligence branch 215 headed by Brig. Gen. Sha’afiq.

The government should provide immediate and unhindered access for recognized international detention monitors to all detention facilities, official and unofficial, without prior notification, Human Rights Watch said. These monitors include the office of the Joint Special Representative of the UN and the League of Arab States, Lakhdar Brahimi and the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Syria. The Joint Special Representative’s Office and the COI should deploy professional human rights monitors who are trained to organize random and regular visits to all places of detention, including suspected secret detention centers. These experts should have the capabilities and resources to identify people who are arbitrarily detained, and those who may be suffering from ill-treatment, protect interviewees from retaliation, and ensure the confidentiality and safekeeping of interviews.

“A constellation of abuse surrounds each incident of arbitrary detention in Syria, from the government’s unwillingness to even acknowledge who is in their custody, to widespread torture and chilling reports of deaths in detention.” Whitson said. “The international community, and first and foremost Syria’s allies, needs to bring pressure to bear on the government to stop these rampant abuses.”

The report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) states that more than half of 635 conflict-related detainees interviewed experienced ill-treatment and torture, particularly in 34 facilities of the Afghan National Police (ANP) and the National Directorate of Security (NDS) between October 2011 and October 2012.

Torture took the form of abusive interrogation techniques in which Afghan officials inflicted severe pain and suffering on detainees during interrogations aimed mainly at obtaining a confession or information, UNAMA stated in a news release. Fourteen methods of torture and ill-treatment were described similar to practices previously documented by the Mission.

“The Government’s attention and efforts to address these abusive practices are visible and encouraging, and have produced some positive results but the system isn’t robust enough to eliminate ill-treatment of detainees,” said Jan Kubis, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of UNAMA. “Clearly, more needs to be done to end and prevent torture.”

Among other measures to improve detention practices, the Government carried out training programmes on prevention of the ill-treatment of detainees, issued policy directives, increased the number of inspections and reassigned personnel.

The Mission noted that while both the NDS and the Ministry of Interior stated that they investigated allegations of ill-treatment, it is unclear whether any of these internal probes resulted in the prosecution or loss of jobs of Afghan officials for involvement in torturing detainees or for having failed to prevent torture.

“UNAMA found a persistent lack of accountability for perpetrators of torture with few investigations and no prosecutions for those responsible,” said Georgette Gagnon, Director of Human Rights for UNAMA.

“The findings highlight that torture cannot be addressed by training, inspections and directives alone but requires sound accountability measures to stop and prevent its use. Without deterrents and disincentives to use torture, including a robust, independent investigation process, criminal prosecutions and courts’ consistent refusal to accept confessions gained through torture, Afghan officials have no incentive to stop torture.”

Over the reporting period, the UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) implemented a detention facility monitoring programme to support Afghan authorities in reforming their interrogation and detainee treatment practices prior to resuming international transfers of detainees to several facilities.

In October 2012, following new reports of torture at several NDS and ANP facilities, including locations where ISAF had transferred detainees, ISAF suspended transfers for a second time. ISAF subsequently stopped transferring detainees to several Afghan facilities and implemented a process limiting transfer to a reduced number of Afghan facilities and increasing monitoring and accountability.

UNAMA stated that its findings reinforce the urgent and long-term need for reforms in the judiciary, prosecution and law enforcement sectors and offers 64 recommendations to the Government and international partners.

In addition to other measures, UNAMA recommends the creation of an independent national preventive mechanism on torture described in the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture.

“Such a dedicated mechanism could be located within the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission with the authority and enhanced capacity and expertise to inspect all detention facilities, conduct follow-up investigations and make detailed technical recommendations on prosecution of perpetrators and remedial measures,” said the Mission.

“Establishing such a mechanism would require concerted and sustained support from the Afghan Government and the international community. UNAMA continues to observe the treatment of detainees and is working closely with Afghan authorities and international partners to bring positive change.”

The recommendations strengthen proposals in UNAMA’s October 2011 report which have not been fully implemented, the Mission added.

The report by IRC, “Syria: A Regional Crisis” details horrific levels of sexual violence, describing “rape as a significant and disturbing feature of the Syrian civil war.”

In the course of three IRC assessments in Lebanon and Jordan, Syrians identified rape as a primary reason their families fled the country. “Many women and girls relayed accounts of being attacked in public or in their homes, primarily by armed men. These rapes, sometimes by multiple perpetrators, often occur in front of family members,” the report states.

The IRC was also told of attacks in which women and girls were kidnapped, raped, tortured and killed.

Because of the stigma and social norms around the “dishonor” that rape brings to women and girls and their families, Syrian survivors rarely report rape. Many interviewed by the IRC also said survivors fear retribution by their assailants, being killed by “shamed” family members, or in the case of girls, being married off at an early age “to safeguard their honor.”

For survivors who manage to flee, there is a shortage of medical and counseling services to help them recover in the communities where they have settled and even there, challenges continue. Many women and girls face unsafe conditions in refugee camps as well as elevated levels of domestic violence.

According to IRC, more than 600,000 Syrians have fled to over-burdened neighboring countries and the UN anticipates that number could soon exceed 1million if the exodus continues at its current pace of about 3,000 refugees a day. Inside Syria, more than 2 million civilians are displaced and the UN estimates that 4 million are in dire need of assistance.

“The Middle East is once again facing a human displacement tragedy,” the commission states in its new report. “Current assistance levels are drastically insufficient to address existing needs, let alone the barest requirements to respond to a lengthy humanitarian emergency and post-conflict recovery.”

The Chairperson of the UN Committee against Torture, Claudio Grossman, told the General Assembly that while an impressive international legal framework has been developed to prevent torture there are still too many States where this practice continues.

During the presentation of the Committee’s annual report Mr. Grossman stressed that while “we have not yet achieved a world free from torture, we believe that this goal is achievable, that rights and duties need to be taken seriously, and that supervisory organs with independent experts are an essential component to achieving that goal.”

The Committee against Torture is a UN body composed of 10 independent experts tasked with preventing torture and monitoring the measures taken by States party to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The Convention, which entered into force 25 years ago, provides that “no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.”

It also obliges States that have ratified the Convention to refrain from deporting or returning people to countries where they would face the risk of torture.

“The Convention has made a real difference in the lives of numerous individuals,” Mr. Grossman said. “However, there is a backlog of more than 115 cases pending before the Committee. This severely weakens the system as justice cannot be provided to States and individuals within a reasonable time.”

The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment entered into force 25 years ago. To date, 153 out of the 193 UN Member States have ratified or acceded to it. However, 29 of these have never submitted a report to the Committee as required.

Mr. Grossman called on the General Assembly to increase financial support and resources so that the Committee can implement new procedures to ease the process of States reporting to the Committee on the measure they have taken to prevent torture.

The General Assembly also heard today, 24th October, from the Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan E. Méndez, who presented a report which finds that the death penalty is increasingly being viewed by international bodies as a form of torture due to the severe mental and physical pain and suffering it causes to people, in addition to failing to respect an individual’s inherent dignity as a person.

Mr. Méndez observed that the death penalty has so far been treated under the exception of the right to life provided by international law, but stressed that a new approach that puts the death penalty in the context of torture is emerging.

In his report, Mr. Méndez analyzed the evolving standards within international bodies and State practices to frame the debate about the legality of the death penalty in the context of preserving human dignity and prohibiting cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

He affirmed that the “death row phenomenon” is a relatively new concept within the context of torture; it refers to the pain caused by a combination of circumstances that produce severe mental trauma and physical suffering among prisoners serving death sentences. These include uncertainty and anxiety created by the threat of death, as well as the effects of prolonged solitary confinement, poor prison conditions and lack of educational or recreational activities.

“Further, while international law does not attribute different values to the right to life of different groups of persons such as juveniles, persons with mental disabilities, pregnant women, elderly persons or persons sentenced after an unfair trial, there is an established standard, supported by a vast majority of States, that executions in these cases are inherently cruel,” Mr. Méndez said.

The independent expert also joined his voice with that of two of his counterparts – the Special Rapporteurs on Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, and on extrajudicial execution, Christof Heyns – in expressing outrage over ten executions carried out by Iran, including that of Saeed Sedighi, over drug-related crimes.

Independent experts, or special rapporteurs, are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on specific human rights themes.

“However, I received credible testimonies of undue physical and mental pressure on detainees in the course of interrogations. These events happen frequently enough to deserve attention and efforts to eradicate them,” said the expert, who wrapped up an eight-day mission to the country on Saturday.

Méndez noted that, while the practice of cruel treatment persists in ordinary criminal cases, treatment amounting to torture is frequently linked to highly charged events such as large demonstrations, a perceived threat to national security or terrorism.

“At those times a corresponding increase in acts of torture and ill-treatment during the detention and arrest process can be detected,” he said.

The expert found that prosecutors and investigative judges dismiss complaints of torture or fail to investigate such allegations. “The complaint system regarding allegations of torture and ill-treatment and investigation, prosecution and punishment of perpetrators, with the exception of a very few cases, seems to be in law only,” he said. “This gap between law and practice must be closed.”

He acknowledged the difficult situation for the authorities regarding the flow of undocumented migrants, particularly in the north of the country. At the same time, he voiced concerns about the increase of reported violence of security forces against this particularly vulnerable group.

“Severe beatings, sexual violence, and other forms of ill-treatment appear to be on the rise,” Méndez said. “I urge the authorities to take all necessary measures to prevent further violence and to investigate reports of violence against sub-Saharan migrants.”

During his mission, the expert met with authorities, the judiciary, civil society, the national human rights institution, UN agencies, as well as with victims and their families, in Rabat, Salé, Skhirat-Témara and Casablanca.

The mission also included a two-day visit to Laâyoune, Western Sahara, where he was “overwhelmed” with the vast number of requests to meet and the hundreds of cases received prior and during his visit.

“I was regrettably only able to meet with a sample of alleged victims and representatives of civil society but I will examine each submission in detail so that all information that falls within the scope of my mandate is considered.”

Independent experts, or special rapporteurs, are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back, in an unpaid capacity, on specific human rights themes.

Méndez will prepare a mission report with his observations and recommendations to be presented at a forthcoming session of the Council, which is based in Geneva.