A/HRC/26/45 of the most pertinent human rights violations in more detail. Given the limited resources available to implement the mandate, the Special Rapporteur has not yet investigated further the allegation regarding the ongoing and systematic violations of the fundamental rights and freedoms of the Red Sea Afar people, one of the nine ethnic minority groups in Eritrea. 10. During the reporting period, given the lack of access to Eritrea, the Special Rapporteur collected first-hand information from Eritrean refugees residing in other countries. She sent visit requests to 21 Member States, seven of which responded positively. From 11 to 20 November 2013, the Special Rapporteur visited Tunisia and Malta, and from 17 to 28 March 2014, she visited Germany and Switzerland. The Special Rapporteur hopes to be able to honour the other three invitations in due course.2 The Special Rapporteur would like to express her thanks to the Governments of the countries that have allowed her to meet with Eritrean refugees and migrants on their territories. She appeals to the 14 Member States that have not responded, or that have responded negatively, to grant her access in order to facilitate the delivery of her mandate.3 11. Many Eritrean refugees interviewed during the field missions described severe human rights violations that they had experienced along the escape routes. Although those violations are not the focus of the present report, they require serious scrutiny in another context. II. Methodology 12. The Special Rapporteur considers that a visit to Eritrea would be the preferred method for carrying out a meticulous assessment of and gathering first-hand information on the situation of human rights in the country. However, since the Government continues to refuse to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur and to permit her access to the country, despite the Council’s call in its resolution 23/21, she collated the necessary information through alternative means, as described in her first report. 13. The Special Rapporteur would like to thank all those who shared with her their personal, and often harrowing, experiences in their search for safety and enjoyment of their human rights. Many of them spoke with her in confidence on the understanding that their identities would not be revealed, which the Special Rapporteur is committed to fully respect. 14. The Special Rapporteur acknowledges the constructive discussions she had with numerous academics, diplomats, Eritreans in the diaspora, experts, human rights defenders and researchers, who provided valuable insights. The list would be too long to name each one individually. The Special Rapporteur also made every effort to engage with and seek the views of Eritrean community organizations, including inviting written submissions. A. Universal Periodic Review 15. The Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) carried out its second review of Eritrea on 3 February 2014. The Special Rapporteur welcomed Eritrea’s highlevel engagement in the review of its human rights record; however, Eritrea’s poor performance with regard to implementing the recommendations made during the first 2 3 4 From Italy, Libya and South Sudan. Those are Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Israel, Kenya, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.