A/HRC/4/5 page 2 Summary The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council decision 1/102, in which the Council decided to extend exceptionally for one year, all the mandates, mechanisms, functions and responsibilities of the Commission on Human Rights. Subsequently, the independent expert on the situation of human rights in Burundi who has been entrusted with this mandate by the Commission on Human Rights since 2004 was requested to submit a report to the Human Rights Council at its fourth session. The report covers the independent expert’s sixth and seventh visits which were undertaken from 7 to 14 October 2006 and 14 to 27 January 2007, respectively. The independent expert’s fifth visit to the country was undertaken from 29 May to 10 June 2006 and he submitted a report on this visit at the General Assembly at its sixty-first session (A/61/360). He also made an oral presentation to the Human Rights Council at its second session, on 27 September 2006, to update his last report prepared for the sixty-second session of the Commission on Human Rights (E/CN.4/2006/109). In his last report (A/61/360), the independent expert had commended the Government of Burundi for the programmes put in place with a view to ensuring the realization of economic and social rights, including free primary education and free health care for expectant mothers and children under 5 years of age. He noted that those programmes, although they were supported by the international community, still needed greater support to be fully implemented. The independent expert expressed concern at the persistent violations and abuses of civil and political rights, the weak and inefficient administration of justice, the delay in the establishment of the transitional justice mechanisms, and the growing intolerance of the Government of Burundi towards criticism from the opposition parties and the civil society. In view of the tremendous challenges to the reconstruction and the development of Burundi, the independent expert had called upon the international community to support the country and encouraged all human rights actors to pursue their efforts and strengthen their coordination with a view to achieving better protection and promotion of human rights. He had concluded his presentation to the Human Rights Council with a series of recommendations to all stakeholders, aimed at consolidating the young democracy in Burundi, increasing support to the justice system, and improving the promotion and the protection of human rights in general.