A/HRC/25/72 United Nations General Assembly Distr.: General 10 January 2014 English Original: French Human Rights Council Twenty-fifth session Agenda item 10 Technical assistance and capacity-building Report of the independent expert on the situation of human rights in Mali, Suliman Baldo Summary Pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 22/18, the present report gives an account of the independent expert’s first visit to Mali from 20 October to 3 November 2013. Covering the period from 1 July to 30 December 2013, it examines the political and security situation as well as the institutional reforms undertaken by Mali since the end of the severe crisis triggered in January 2012 by the occupation of the north of the country by armed groups and the return to constitutional order. The independent expert also reports on human rights violations in the country, including summary executions, enforced disappearances, rapes, looting, arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment perpetrated by the Malian armed forces and armed groups in the country. Despite the complex causes of the conflict between the Government and the armed groups of the north and the mistrust arising from a number of historical episodes of the conflict, the protagonists have demonstrated the political will to find lasting solutions to the multidimensional crisis that has shaken Mali. The Malian stakeholders must persevere in seeking negotiated solutions to their internal problems of governance while urging their neighbours in the Sahel and in the Arab Maghreb as well as the international community to take seriously the problems of transnational crime and terrorism that threaten to destabilize both Mali and the States of the region. The recent crisis has revealed the underlying causes that almost led to the collapse of the State: years of deteriorating public institutions, including those that govern the rule of law, which allowed corruption to become generalized and impunity to take root. In addition to judicial prosecution of the perpetrators of the most serious crimes and abuse committed in the course of the last crisis, consolidation of peace in Mali will require reforms of the justice and security sectors, efforts to combat the endemic corruption of civil servants brought about by international trafficking and the criminalization of the economy of the north, as well as other institutional reforms. GE.14-10118 (E) 050214 060214 *1410118*