Dear Colleague,

Thank you for your email to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to the attention of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, a UN mandate established in 2000, to support implementation of the 1998 UN Declaration on human rights defenders and also to gather information on the actual situation of human rights defenders around the world.

The Special Rapporteur relies on your information to function effectively to protect human rights defenders. We therefore value receiving this vital input from you as part of your work and we thank you for taking this responsibility so seriously.

Your message is receiving due attention and we will contact you in case we need additional information or clarifications.

If your email concerns a submission for an eventual communication by the mandate, please note that Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor, and/or other relevant Special Procedures mandate-holders will review your submission and decide on action to be taken. It is essential that complaints made fall within the mandate.

Should your circumstances change, or the situation require that you update us, please do not hesitate to get in touch again, supplying the additional information.

Should SR Lawlor and/or other Special Procedures decide to act on your submission, by writing a communication to Governments and others, such as intergovernmental organisations, businesses, military or security companies, it will remain confidential for 60 days. Thereafter they are published in an online database along with the reply, if any.

For additional guidance on communications and how to submit complaints, please click here.

We realise that human rights defenders need the support of the mandate, but it is impossible to respond to all requests. We try to react as quickly as possible to allegations, with special attention given to the most serious and urgent cases.

Please do not hesitate to get back in touch if you would like further information or clarifications.

– Mary Lawlor