A/HRC/19/55 108. Information received by the mandate holder indicates that youth and students often work outside established structures, including established NGOs, to defend and promote human rights. Youth organizations and student movements are often informal structures with limited organizational capacity. Extensive registration processes for NGOs in several countries add to the isolation of youth organizations and may discourage them from registering as NGOs. This, in turn, limits the organizations’ possibilities for obtaining funding and making connections, including with the United Nations human rights system. Youth and students generally have limited knowledge of the United Nations human rights system and regional human rights mechanisms. 109. The lack of an enabling environment for meaningful youth participation also extends to civil society. The Special Rapporteur is concerned about the lack of capacity of NGOs to address the human rights issues of young people or to effectively mobilize young people and include them in their organizations. (c) Overview by region 110. Over half of the communications sent (31) were addressed to Governments in Asia, among which 14 were sent to the Islamic Republic of Iran, five were sent to China, and three to the Philippines. Nineteen of the cases concerned men as victims, while five reported women as victims and five related to victims of both sexes. The sex of the victim(s) was not reported in two cases. Allegations of violations against youth and students in Asia were for the most part related to physical integrity, which was mentioned in 26 cases. Alleged violations included killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, physical attacks and forced labour. Eight cases were judicial in nature, including criminalization of the activities of human rights defenders, arrests, prison sentences and concerns about due process, including under anti-terrorism legislation. 111. There were also two cases reported in which violations concerned psychological integrity. Youth and students allegedly targeted by such violations received threats, including death threats; were subject to harassment by police, security forces and non-State actors; and saw, in some cases, such actions target their family members. Two communications raised issues such as raids and searches of the offices of youth and student organizations, confiscation of computers, paper files and other materials from their offices, as well as surveillance of their homes and/or offices. 112. In a great majority of the cases, the alleged perpetrators were State actors, often police and, in some cases, security forces. In a few cases, it was not possible to identify the perpetrators. It is important to note that alleged violations often seemed to be linked to organization of and participation in peaceful demonstrations, public appearances and speeches or the publication of articles or blog entries. 113. By contrast, in the Americas region, where eight communications were sent, the alleged perpetrators were for the most part not identified. In a limited number of cases, State actors were the alleged perpetrators and, in a few other cases, non-State actors. As in Asia, most of the cases referred to violations of physical integrity, including killings, physical attacks and arbitrary detention. One case referred to psychological integrity, where a youth human rights defender had received death threats. Most alleged violations in the Americas were connected to the defender’s participation in demonstrations or conferences. Two of the communications were addressed to Chile and another two to Mexico. Three cases reported female victims, two cases concerned male victims, and one case related to victims of both sexes. In the African region, eight communications were sent during the period. Three of these communications were sent to the Government of Zimbabwe and two were sent to the Government of Sudan. In all eight cases, the alleged perpetrators were State actors. In four cases, the victims were male, while in three cases the victims were both female and male. There were no cases with only female victims. In one case, the sex of the 18