A/HRC/19/55 victim(s) was not reported. The majority of the cases involved violations of physical integrity, including arbitrary detention, torture, ill-treatment, killings, enforced disappearances and disproportional use of force to break up demonstrations. Other violations in Africa were judicial in nature, involving broad and often vaguely defined criminal charges, fines and prison sentences. As in other regions, alleged violations often happened in the context of peaceful demonstrations, although a marked trend in Africa was violations by police when breaking up demonstrations, notably through the disproportional use of force. Participation in public youth forums and issuing of press statements were also actions that had led to the violations reported. 114. Seven communications were addressed to Governments in the Middle East and North Africa during the assessed period. Two of the communications were sent to Bahrain, and another two to Egypt. Men were the victims in all reported cases. Despite the low number of communications for this region, reported violations were wide-ranging in nature. The majority represented violations of physical integrity, including enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, ill-treatment in detention and disproportional use of force during demonstrations. Violations of a judicial nature were also reported, including prison sentences, allegedly fabricated charges and arrests. Some cases involved violations of psychological integrity, including threats and violence against defenders’ family members. 115. In addition to these communications, the Special Rapporteur has issued a number of joint statements with other special procedures pertaining to the situations in several countries in the Middle East and North Africa during the first half of 2011, including Bahrain, Egypt, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (at the time), Syrian Arab Republic and Tunisia. Together with the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the Special Rapporteur called on the Syrian Arab Republic on 15 April 2011 to “immediately release the human rights defenders, journalists and bloggers, who play a crucial role in monitoring recent events and informing the public”. 116. In the Europe and Central Asia region, six communications were sent to Governments during the period, of which two were sent to the Russian Federation. An important distinction from other regions was that a majority of the victims were women (four out of six). One case involved a male victim and, in another, the sex of the victim(s) was not reported. Also in contrast to other regions, the majority of alleged violations in Europe and Central Asia consisted of raids on and searches of offices, confiscation of materials, surveillance of defenders’ activities and their organizations’ offices and lengthy interrogations, and even refusal to allow defenders to travel abroad. There were also alleged violations of youth and students’ physical integrity, including physical assaults, excessive use of force during demonstrations and arbitrary detention. There was one case involving violations of psychological integrity and one case of criminalization of defenders’ activities following peaceful protests. One case involved violations of a judicial nature, more specifically prison sentences. In five of the cases, State actors were the alleged perpetrators, notably police, while non-State actors were the alleged perpetrators in one case. IV. Conclusions and recommendations 117. The Special Rapporteur is very concerned at the extraordinary risks that these groups of defenders face due to their work in defence of human rights. Most of these risks not only directly affect their physical integrity and that of their family members, but also include the abusive use of legal frameworks against them and the criminalization of their work. The Special Rapporteur is also extremely concerned at reports received indicating that State actors, including Government officials, State 19