A/HRC/7/18 page 3 I. INTRODUCTION 1. The Special Rapporteur’s mandate on the situation of human rights in Myanmar was established in 1992 by the Commission on Human Rights in its resolution 1992/581 and extended in resolution 2005/10. 2. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur is expected to be reviewed by the Human Rights Council at its seventh session. The present report, submitted in accordance with Council resolution 5/1, covers the period from February 2007 to February 2008. 3. Since his nomination in December 2000, the Special Rapporteur has been authorized by the Government of Myanmar to visit the country seven times. Between November 2003 and November 2007, the Government did not allow the Special Rapporteur to conduct missions to Myanmar. Following the special session of the Council on 2 October 2007, the Special Rapporteur was invited by the Government to conduct a 5-day fact-finding mission to Myanmar in November 2007. His findings were reported to the Council (A/HRC/6/14). 4. The Special Rapporteur regrets that he was not permitted to return to Myanmar for a follow-up mission, as was requested by the Council. 5. The Special Rapporteur continued to discharge his mandate to the best of his ability on the basis of information on grave violations of human rights collected from a variety of independent, reliable sources. The Special Rapporteur acknowledges receipt of the responses concerning the situation of a number of detainees. He would also like to point out that the absence of substantive responses to the majority of his and other special procedures mandate-holders’ communications makes it difficult for him to discern a genuine commitment on the part of the Government to address these human rights violations. II. ACTIVITIES OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR 6. The Special Rapporteur continued to have regular contacts with the Permanent Missions of Myanmar to the United Nations at Geneva and New York. He held consultations with representatives of Member States, officials of United Nations agencies and programmes, representatives of civil society organizations and members of the academic community. He presented his annual report (A/62/223) to the General Assembly in New York on 14 October 2007. He also shared his findings and had regular contacts with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, the Department of Political Affairs, the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy. The Special Rapporteur also welcomes the appointment of the special envoy on Myanmar of the European Union, Piero Fassino, with whom he met following his appointment. 7. From 11 to 15 November 2007, the Special Rapporteur visited Myanmar at the invitation of the Government, pursuant to Council resolution S-5/1. His report on that visit (A/HRC/6/14) was submitted separately to the Council in November 2007. On 16 and 17 November 2007,