A/HRC/28/83 Agreement and to immediately resume negotiations. The parties agreed that an international commission of inquiry should be set up to investigate the events in the north, starting with Kidal, and in accordance with the Preliminary Agreement. 16. The first round of negotiations, held from 14 to 24 July 2014 in Algiers, led to the adoption of a road map and a declaration of cessation of hostilities, signed by the Government of Mali with each of the two groups of armed coalitions: the Coordination (composed of MNLA, the Supreme Council for the Unity of Azawad (HCUA), the Arab Movement of Azawad (MAA)); the Platform (composed of Coordination des Mouvements et Forces Patriotiques de Résistance (CMFPR), Coalition du peuple pour l’Azawad (CPA), and another dissident faction of MAA). 17. A second round of negotiations began in early September between, the Government and the Coordination on the one hand, and the Government and the Platform on the other hand. The negotiations centred on four basic themes: policy, security, development, and justice and reconciliation issues. Two further rounds of negotiations were held in Algiers, on 20 October 2014 and from 20 November respectively. 18. The November session of the Algiers talks ended in stalemate as the positions of the Malian Government and Tuareg armed groups could not be reconciled. With their confidence boosted by the events of May in Kidal, the Tuareg armed groups are demanding full autonomy for the three northern regions: they would form one federal entity in a federation with the southern region and have their own parliament, judiciary and government. By so doing the movements are seeking to meet the expectations of independence among their popular support base, especially in Kidal, and to a lesser extent in the cities of Gao and Timbuktu. 19. For its part, the Government is proposing to the armed Tuareg movements an enhanced version of its policy of greater devolvement of decision-making on local affairs to regional and local authorities throughout the country. 20. On 30 November 2014, the draft agreement for peace and reconciliation in Mali was distributed to the parties by the mediation team and will be discussed at the next round of negotiations scheduled for January 2015. The question of the degree of autonomy that should be given to the regions of northern Mali and ensuring security in this part of the country are likely to dominate the public debate in the coming months. 21. It was against this political background that the third visit of the Independent Expert to Mali took place. During his discussions with political actors involved in the Algiers talks, he drew their attention to the importance of ensuring that any peace agreement comes under a legal framework in keeping with international human rights instruments, which means not granting amnesty to the perpetrators of international crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and serious human rights violations, including sexual violence and gender-based violence. 22. For this reason, the Independent Expert welcomes the publication, on 27 August 2014, of the human rights organizations’ manifesto for a peace agreement that respects victims’ rights. The document recalls that political negotiations are necessary to reach a final and inclusive peace agreement that respects national unity and the rights of victims to justice, truth and reparation, as recognized in international and national instruments. B. The security situation 23. These political and diplomatic developments seriously hampered the progress that Mali had begun to make in late 2013 and early 2014, in the closely related tasks of ensuring security and re-establishing the administrative and judicial authorities in the northern 6 GE.15-00252