A/HRC/32/34 of Guinea-Bissau in ensuring the independence of judges, prosecutors and lawyers, as well as a fair and competent administration of justice (see A/HRC/32/34/Add.1). She thanks the authorities for their invitation and their engagement with her mandate and hopes that concrete measures will be taken to implement her recommendations. She also encourages the international donor community to take account of her report and to consider the recommendations contained therein when establishing their cooperation priorities and deciding on specific initiatives. 7. The Special Rapporteur would also like to thank the Government of Sri Lanka for inviting her, and the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan Méndez, to conduct a joint visit to the country from 29 April to 7 May 2016. The final report of that visit will be presented to the Human Rights Council at its thirty-fifth session, in June 2017. 8. Since 1 August 2015, the Special Rapporteur has sent requests for official visits to the Governments of Ecuador and Lebanon, as well as reminders of pending requests for visits to the Governments of China, Egypt, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. She also sent a letter to Kenya, which had accepted a country visit request sent by her predecessor, confirming her interest in conducting a visit and proposing it take place during the second half of 2016. At the time of writing the present report, she had not received replies to these various requests. 9. Finally, the Special Rapporteur wishes to acknowledge the positive replies of the Governments of France, Germany, Greece, Iraq, Morocco, Nepal, Spain and the United States of America to the country visit requests sent by her predecessor. In this context, she wishes to thank the authorities of the countries concerned. She also informs the Human Rights Council that she will give consideration to the aforementioned replies in due course. B. Communications and press releases 10. From 1 August 2015 to 29 February 2016, the Special Rapporteur sent a total of 55 communications, to 32 Member States from all regional groups and to one other entity, in the form of 46 urgent appeals (84 per cent of the communications) and 9 allegation letters (16 per cent of the communications). These communications, together with the responses from Governments, are included in the communications reports of special procedures (for those sent between 1 August and 30 November 2015, see A/HRC/31/79, and for those sent between 1 December 2015 and 29 February 2016, see A/HRC/32/53). 11. All 55 communications were sent jointly with other special procedure mandate holders. In the Special Rapporteur’s opinion, this reflects the reality that situations in which the independence and impartiality of judges, lawyers and prosecutors, the proper functioning of the justice system and the right to due process of law and a fair trial are affected very often occur when other democratic institutions are at risk or when a variety of human rights are concurrently being violated, such as the right not to be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention, the right not to be subjected to torture or ill-treatment, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the right not to be subjected to discrimination, or the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. 12. A large majority of the communications addressed issues related to violations of guarantees of due process of law or of a fair trial, such as the lack of access or inadequate access to a lawyer, hearings held in closed session without justification, violations of the principle of equality of arms and the right to a defence, the trial of civilians before military courts, or the lack of impartiality of judges. In about a dozen of the communications, allegations relating to lack of due process or lack of a fair trial were raised in the context of cases where persons had been sentenced to, or were facing being sentenced to, the death 4