A/HRC/7/22 page 12 46. Armed rebel movements are also alleged to be violating the rights of civilians. For example, in South Darfur, a man from the Arab Reizigat tribe reported that he had been abducted by the Abdul Wahid faction of SLA on 27 October and held in detention for more than 20 days on suspicion of being a Government spy. He was subjected to torture and ill-treatment, including severe beatings and being hanged upside down from a tree. 47. The female population of Darfur, in particular internally displaced persons, continue to be the target of rape and other sexual and gender-based violence. The established pattern of violence against women that emerged at the beginning of the conflict continued during the reporting period. As documented in many previous incidents, the perpetrators were very often armed men in military uniforms or in civilian clothes travelling in groups on horses or camels. In North Darfur, internally displaced persons were victims in 80 per cent of all reported cases of sexual and gender-based violence. Female internally displaced persons were usually attacked when they left the confines of the camps for internally displaced persons to engage in income-generating activities, such as the collection of firewood, grass and fruit. The women reported that they continued to risk being attacked whenever they left the camp. 48. The majority of incidents of sexual violence went unreported. Many victims chose not to file complaints because they felt that the police could not or would not take appropriate action against perpetrators. In many cases, police action was limited to receiving complaints without any steps being taken to investigate and bring the alleged perpetrators to justice. 49. In August 2007, the Minister for Justice issued a declaration outlining measures that the Ministry planned to undertake to eliminate violence against women in Darfur. The Government also publicly condemned violence against women and reaffirmed its zero-tolerance policy for such crimes. While acknowledging the efforts of the Government, the Special Rapporteur is concerned that these efforts have not yielded any discernible improvement on the ground during the reporting period, as shown by the continuing reports of incidences of sexual and gender-based violence in Darfur. 50. Widespread impunity continues to prevail in Darfur. Efforts by the police to investigate crimes allegedly perpetrated by soldiers and other members of the security forces are often frustrated by a lack of cooperation from military authorities. In El Fasher and Kabkabiya, North Darfur, police investigations into two shooting incidents involving soldiers in October 2007 have apparently stalled because the military failed to hand over the alleged perpetrators. 51. The administration of justice in Darfur is severely weakened by a culture of impunity, a poorly functioning law enforcement system, staff and resource shortcomings in the judiciary and the public prosecutor’s office and lack of political will. The most prominent conflict-related accountability mechanism in Darfur is the Special Criminal Courts on the Events in Darfur, established by decree on 7 June 2005. A number of public statements by the Government of the Sudan indicated that the special courts were established to deal with major criminal offences which had occurred in the states of the Darfur region and which could be characterized as war