A/HRC/39/23 I. Introduction 1. In resolution 33/2, the Human Rights Council requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in consultation with States, the available mechanisms concerned with ensuring the safety of journalists and all other relevant stakeholders, to prepare a report, to be submitted at its thirty-ninth session, on an overview of available mechanisms concerned with ensuring the safety of journalists, including existing international and regional prevention, protection, monitoring and complaint mechanisms, with a view to providing an analysis of their effectiveness. The present report was prepared in accordance with that request. 2. In resolution 33/2, the Council expressed “deep concern” at the increased number of journalists and media workers1 who had been killed, tortured, arrested or detained in recent years as a direct result of their profession. It also condemned unequivocally all attacks and violence against journalists and media workers, such as torture, killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrest and arbitrary detention, intimidation, threats and harassment, including through attacks on or the forced closure of their offices and media outlets, in both conflict and non-conflict situations. 3. In preparing this report, the Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) sought contributions from Member States, international and regional organizations, national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations. 2 The report also draws on public sources, including those of United Nations entities and human rights mechanisms, academia, practitioners and civil society organizations. 4. In accordance with resolution 33/2, the High Commissioner focuses on the many different types of existing international and regional mechanisms. It builds on the previous OHCHR report on the topic, which provided an overview of the initiatives in national contexts and identified good practices (A/HRC/24/23). A number of the mechanisms discussed below have multiple functions and operate across the prevention, protection, monitoring and complaints spectrum. For example, accountability mechanisms also play critical functions in prevention and protection. Similarly, the monitoring of violations 1 2 2 Journalism is “a function shared by a wide range of actors, including professional full-time reporters and analysts, as well as bloggers and others who engage in forms of self-publication in print, on the Internet or elsewhere” (Human Rights Committee general comment No. 34 (2011) on the freedoms of opinion and expression, para. 44). See A/HRC/20/17, paras. 3–5; A/HRC/20/22, para. 26; A/HRC/24/23, para. 9; A/HRC/27/35, para. 9; A/69/268, para. 4; and A/HRC/16/44, para. 47. See also resolution 39 adopted by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at its thirty-ninth session (November 2017). Contributions were received from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cuba, El Salvador, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Ireland, Malta, Mauritius, Netherlands, Philippines (Presidential Task Force on Media Security), Qatar, Sweden, Togo and United States of America; and from the following: Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain, Association nationale de promotion et de protection des droits de l’homme (Cameroon), Centro de Investigación y Capacitación Propuesta Cívica (Mexico), Comisionado Nacional de los Derechos Humanos (Honduras), Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines, Cultural Survival, Defensoría del Pueblo (Colombia), Equipe Media (Western Sahara), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Greek National Commission for Human Rights, Human Rights Defender’s Office (Armenia), Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia, Independent Journalists’ Association of Vojvodina, International Federation of Journalists, International Service for Human Rights, International Media Support, Mexican Commission for the Defence and Promotion of Human Rights, Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Procurador de los Derechos Humanos de Guatemala, Reporters Without Borders, ReverdeSer Colectivo (Mexico) and United Towns Agency for North-South Cooperation. The following members of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange network also contributed: Africa Freedom of Information Centre, Albanian Media Institute, Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (Argentina), Centre for Independent Journalism (Romania), Cerigua (Guatemala), Free Media Movement (Sri Lanka), Inter-American Press Association, Observatorio Latinoamericano para la Libertad de Expresión (Peru) and Pakistan Press Foundation.