A/HRC/39/63 other sources. These are in addition to the 500 interviews conducted and the testimonies gathered during its initial mandate period. 7. As it had done for its previous report (A/HRC/36/54 and A/HRC/36/54/Corr.1), the Commission adopted the same standard of proof as most other commissions of inquiry on human rights, namely “reasonable grounds to believe”. It therefore took care to collect a body of reliable and consistent information on the basis of which a reasonable and ordinarily prudent person would have reason to believe that an incident or pattern of conduct had occurred. D. Applicable law 8. The law applicable to the work of the Commission, namely international human rights law and international criminal law, has also remained the same (see A/HRC/36/54, paras. 9 and 10). Over the past year, there have been no new developments pointing to the existence of an armed conflict to which the rules of international humanitarian law would apply. Having decided to place greater emphasis on economic and social rights, the Commission based its legal analyses on the relevant instruments to which Burundi is a party.2 9. Burundi remains a party to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, but it ceased to be a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court on 27 October 2017. The country’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute does not, however, discharge it from the obligations arising therefrom while it was a party to this treaty. 3 Accordingly, on 25 October 2017, Pre-Trial Chamber III of the International Criminal Court authorized the Prosecutor of the Court to open an investigation into crimes committed in Burundi between 26 April 2015 and 26 October 2017. The Commission has continued to refer to the definitions of crimes provided by the Rome Statute, which are reflected in the Criminal Code of Burundi. II. Human rights situation A. Main trends 10. The Commission found that the main human rights violations documented since the political crisis began in April 2015, namely cases of summary execution, disappearance and enforced disappearance, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and ill-treatment, and sexual violence, have persisted in 2017 and 2018. As in the past, most of the victims of these violations are opponents of the Government and/or of the ruling party (the Conseil national pour la défense de la démocratie-Forces pour la défense de la démocratie (CNDD-FDD)) or persons who are perceived as such, including members of opposition political parties (particularly the Forces nationales de libération, led by Agathon Rwasa, and the Mouvement pour la solidarité et la démocratie); supporters of armed opposition groups; Burundians trying to flee the country and therefore suspected of joining such groups; or journalists or members of civil society organizations. 11. The violations have had lasting psychological and physical effects on the victims. Those that have been committed primarily against men, including enforced disappearance and summary execution, have had multiple consequences for the victims’ families. In addition to the impact of losing a spouse, wives often face harassment, threats or violence on the part of the alleged perpetrators and are unable to meet the basic needs of their families. 12. Before and during the campaign to amend the Constitution, CNDD-FDD and its youth league, the Imbonerakure, stepped up their efforts to recruit members from among 2 3 4 See A/HRC/39/CRP.1. Rome Statute, art. 127. GE.18-13070