A/HRC/41/39/Add.2 report the type and resolution of grievances and provide for independent rather than government ministry follow-up. VI. Civil society as a partner in development 72. In his end of mission statement, the Special Rapporteur describes in detail the repressive policies designed to suppress and deter all civil society activity that seeks to do anything beyond working for or supporting the Government. In addition to violating the Government’s human rights obligations, the policies are costly and self-defeating. In the absence of a functioning civil society, informed social policies cannot be designed, the information needed to inform responsive economic policies cannot be obtained, anticorruption campaigns cannot flourish and Governments cannot reap the benefits of diverse inputs into policymaking. Suppression drives activity underground, leads to stored up resentment, requires a huge unproductive apparatus, leaves those aggrieved without remedies and prevents the new generation of Lao people from offering solutions to the country’s many challenges. If poverty is to be tackled, genuine civil society space is essential, for the robust discussion of ideas, raising important concerns, sharing knowledge and experience, promoting transparency and addressing corruption. 73. The Government should consult on ways in which the 2017 Decree on Associations No. 238 could be amended to enable civil society organizations to function meaningfully and freely. Stringent restrictions on travel within the country by non-profit associations, including requirements that they must always be accompanied by government monitors, should be eliminated. It is telling that the Government has expanded the time frame within which it registers a non-profit association to 165 days, while reducing the time frame for setting up a company, from six months to less than one month. 64 74. The Government has already undertaken to giving careful consideration to the concluding observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC/C/LAO/CO/3-6) and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW/C/LAO/CO/8-9). It should also implement the relevant recommendations relating to civil society made in the context of the second cycle of the universal periodic review process, in 2015, and the concluding observations adopted by the Human Rights Committee (CCPR/C/LAO/CO/1). It will be in a much better position to report positively in the context of the third cycle of the universal periodic review, in 2020, if it acts now in that respect. 75. The National Assembly should explore ways to bring civil society perspectives into its increasingly vibrant debates. 76. The Government should finally allow a meaningful investigation of the disappearance of Sombath Somphone, a widely admired civil society leader last seen getting into a vehicle after being stopped at a police checkpoint in 2012. 77. The international community must assist and advise the Government in those areas. Choreographed dialogue achieves little, and the quiet pursuit of development goals while sidelining a discussion of human rights and civil society space will not lead to sustainable growth, a robust domestic economy or a stable society. Donors should transparently support steps to open up civil society space and public debate. They should speak up publicly to break the suffocating silence surrounding the issue, because others cannot; it is not enough to deliver the message only behind closed doors. Diplomacy is a balancing act, but donors should ask whether the initiatives that they tout as accomplishments are leading to progress in the long term or helping to mask persistent problems. They can also play a role in following up on the recommendations made in the context of the universal periodic review and by the human rights treaty bodies. 64 The Economist, “Country report: Malaysia”, p. 13. 17