A/HRC/18/51 I. Introduction 1. Special procedures are mandated by the Human Rights Council to report to it on their activities (see Appendix). 2. At the fifteenth annual meeting of special procedures, held in Geneva from 23 to 27 June 2008, mandate holders supported the periodic issuance of a joint communications report to prevent inconsistencies among mandate holders reporting on the same communications to the Council; avoid duplication and rationalize documentation; allow the examination of cross-cutting human rights issues; and ensure that the content of communications and any follow-up would feed into the universal periodic review process more effectively (A/HRC/10/24, para 34-35). In 2009, the sixteenth annual meeting of special procedures mandate holders decided that a joint communications report would be prepared (cf. A/HRC/12/47, para 24-26), with this decision being reconfirmed by the seventeenth annual meeting of special procedures in 2010. Mandate holders decided that the report should contain summaries of communications, and statistical information (A/HRC/15/44, para. 26-27). 3. The Outcome document of the review of the work and functioning of the Human Rights Council calls on the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to maintain information on special procedures in a comprehensive and easily accessible manner, and encourages the use of modern information technology to reduce the circulation of paper (A/HRC/RES/16/21, Annex, para. 24, 29 and 60). 4. The report strengthens transparency, efficiency and reduces documentation and related costs. Short summaries of allegations communicated to the respective State or other entity are included in the report, and the communications sent and responses received are accessible electronically through hyperlinks. 5. Communications are reproduced in the language in which they were sent. Replies received in Arabic, Chinese or Russian are included with translations into English, where available. 6. This report covers all urgent appeals and letters of allegations sent by special procedures mandate holders between 1 December 2010 and 31 May 2011 and all replies received between 1 February 2011 and 31 July 2011. 7. The report also includes replies received between 1 February and 31 July 2011, relating to communications sent by special procedures mandate holders before 1 December 2010. Some of these replies supplement information communicated earlier by the respective State. 8. In addition, as a transitional measure, the report also includes all communications sent and replies received by six mandates reporting to the eighteenth session of the Council, since they submitted their last communications reports individually to the fifteenth session of the Council in September 2010. This is to ensure full coverage given that the reporting period of this joint communications report is shorter than earlier reporting periods for individual mandates reporting to September sessions of the Council. The following mandates are concerned: Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia; Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples; Working Group on the use of mercenaries; Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery; Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation; and Special Rapporteur on the adverse effects of the movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products and wastes. 9. The present report contains urgent appeals sent by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and joint 6