A/HRC/38/43 8. The Independent Expert had the opportunity to interact with a wide range of human rights activists. Meetings with global organizations and individual experts were held on 2, 5 and 7 February, 1, 3, 7 and 20 March and 3 and 13 April 2018. On 22 February and 19 April 2018, he met with a wide range of activists from Commonwealth countries in London. On 27 February 2018, he met a group of activists from Buenos Aires, Berlin, Geneva and New York through a virtual platform. All meetings were focused on the dissemination of the objectives and functions of the mandate, and on receiving input with regard to the issue of violence and discrimination as seen by stakeholders, with particular emphasis on the criminalization of same-sex activity. 9. The Independent Expert also attended academic discussions on 14 February 2018 at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Lund, Sweden, and on 29 and 30 March 2018 at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, the latter under the theme of “Gender analytics and feminist social justice approaches and the SOGI Mandate”. 10. Within the active outreach approach that the Independent Expert intends to impress in the mandate, he gave five interviews, issued an individual press release, was involved in seven joint statements and press releases and maintained an active social media presence throughout the period. He also took part in a virtual training session on 16 January 2018. 1 11. During the period under review, the Independent Expert provided technical assistance for the development of tools for the protection of LGBTI persons deprived of liberty; on 15 and 16 March 2018, to review a guide on monitoring to assist bodies with a monitoring mandate;2 and on 3 and 4 April, in relation to standards for the protection of LGBTI persons deprived of liberty. 3 He issued four communications in support of national efforts to combat specific cases of alleged violence and discrimination. 4 The Independent Expert underlines the importance of this mechanism, which allows for the provision of advisory services, technical assistance, capacity-building and international cooperation, in compliance with Council resolution 32/2, paragraph 3 (f). 12. The Independent Expert sent visit requests to Armenia, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Georgia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nepal, Poland, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Ukraine. 13. The Independent Expert thanks Governments, civil society organizations, activists, international organizations, individuals and other stakeholders for their invaluable support in the initial months of his mandate. III. Objectives 14. The Independent Expert recognizes two overarching objectives for the mandate: heightened awareness and support for effective State measures. 15. The Independent Expert has a mandate to raise the visibility of violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and to identify their root causes. Heightened awareness of the levels of violence and discrimination to which lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender non-conforming persons are subjected every day is in itself a significant measure to address this scourge. With the aim of complying with this dictate, a section on violence and discrimination is included below. 16. In its resolution 32/2, the Human Rights Council describes a sequence of actions designed to support States in identifying, designing and implementing measures to eradicate violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The 1 2 3 4 4 See https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/events/yp10-update-jan-2018/. See https://apt.ch/en/events/experts-meeting-to-review-a-guide-on-monitoring-the-situation-of-lgbtipersons-deprived-of-liberty. Center for Justice and International Law, Standards applicable to LGBTI persons deprived of liberty. Communications are available from https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/Tmsearch/TMDocuments. Since the creation of the mandate, a total of 18 communications have been sent to Azerbaijan, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Peru, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Singapore and Tunisia.