A/HRC/4/33 page 15 Senegal”.16 On 2 July 2006, the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, by explicitly referring to the obligations of Senegal under the Convention against Torture, requested Senegal to prosecute Habré. Conclusion 46. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the announcement of President Abdoulaye Wade that his Government has agreed to this request and anticipates the speedy implementation of the 2 November 2006 decision of the Government of Senegal to revise its laws to permit the trial and further to establish a governmental commission under the Minister of Justice to oversee the legal changes, make contact with Chad, create a witness protection programme and raise money to carry out the investigation and trial. 47. The Habré case may provide a positive example to other States which so far have been reluctant to exercise universal jurisdiction over alleged perpetrators of torture present on their territory. After all, impunity is one of the main reasons for the widespread practice of torture in all regions of the world, and universal jurisdiction is one of the most important methods of fighting impunity by ensuring that torturers find no safe haven in our global world. The Special Rapporteur calls on States parties to the Convention against Torture to make use of their rights and obligations under the Convention to exercise universal jurisdiction. IV. COOPERATION WITH REGIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 48. Global human rights problems can be addressed effectively only by concerted and well-coordinated cooperation among the whole array of actors involved in the realization of human rights, including Governments, international and regional intergovernmental organizations, parliamentarians, legal professionals, academics, non-governmental organizations, other civil society representatives and rights holders themselves. In this section, the Special Rapporteur will give special attention to the importance of cooperation between his mandate and regional human rights organizations to address the practice of torture and ill-treatment. 49. The Special Rapporteur on the question of torture is one of the key mechanisms established by the United Nations to eradicate torture. As an independent human rights expert, among the main responsibilities of the Special Rapporteur are to: raise awareness of the international standards relating to the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment; examine in-depth issues impacting on the practice; address to Governments individual and general allegations of torture and ill-treatment; and by visits in situ, objectively assess the situation of torture and ill-treatment in countries and make recommendations on measures needed to prevent their occurrence. 50. With the limited means at his disposal and a mandate that covers the globe, he readily acknowledges that he cannot realistically do this on his own. Governments ultimately are responsible for the implementation of human rights obligations, and therefore are the Special Rapporteur’s primary partners. And apart from intergovernmental organizations, he 16 Ibid., paras. 29, 30.