A/HRC/31/77 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted pursuant to the statement of the President of the Human Rights Council, of 27 March 2015, in which the Council invited the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Haiti to undertake a mission to Haiti and to report on that mission to the Council at its thirty-first session (A/HRC/PRST/28/3, para. 16). 2. In the President’s statement, the Council agreed to extend the Independent Expert’s mandate for one year (para. 12). The present report relates to the period from 1 April 2015 to 10 January 2016 and contains recommendations for the Government of Haiti and the international community. It takes up the five priority areas indicated in the previous report, examining some aspects in greater detail, namely the elections and the situation of persons returning or deported from the Dominican Republic. 3. The Independent Expert undertook a mission to Haiti from 6 to 15 September 2015, followed by a series of meetings in New York from 15 to 18 September. In Haiti, he stayed in Port-au-Prince and visited Petit-Goâve, in the Ouest Department, and Anse-à-Pitres, in the Sud-Est Department on the border with the Dominican Republic. 4. The Independent Expert had also visited Haiti from 22 February to 3 March 2015, two weeks before orally presenting his previous report to the Human Rights Council on 24 March 2015 but after the report had been issued. The present report contains references to the February-March 2015 visit. 5. The Independent Expert wishes to thank all those with whom he met during his visit, especially the Prime Minister, the Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Justice, Education, and Economic Affairs and Finance, the Deputy Minister for Electoral Matters, the Director General of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour and the Director General of the Ministry of Women and Women’s Rights. 6. The Independent Expert also wishes to thank the four members of the Provisional Electoral Council, the Ombudsman, the mayor of Anse-à-Pitres and the authorities of the Petit-Goâve detention centre, with whom he was able to meet. 7. The support received from the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) was instrumental, as always, in the success of this mission. The Independent Expert wishes to express his appreciation to the Special Representative of the SecretaryGeneral, as well as to all those working with her, in particular in the Human Rights Section. The Independent Expert also wishes to thank the representatives and members of the United Nations programmes in Haiti and New York for their support and for the information they provided. 8. The Independent Expert wishes to thank as well the representatives of the Organization of American States, through whose good offices he was able to meet with members of the diplomatic corps in Haiti. He also expresses his thanks to the ambassadors of the Group of Friends of Haiti with whom he met in New York, hosted by the Permanent Mission of Uruguay to the United Nations. 9. Lastly, the Independent Expert extends his sincere thanks to the many representatives of civil society organizations, political parties, journalists, academics and members of human rights NGOs in Port-au-Prince and the Sud-Est Department with whom he met in Haiti and in New York. GE.16-01946 3