A/HRC/19/44 I. Introduction 1. Special procedures are mandated by the Human Rights Council to report to it on their activities (see annex). 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 June 2011 and 30 November 2011 and all replies received between 1 August 2011 and 31 January 2012. Communcations sent before 1 June 2011 have been reported in A/HRC/18/51. 7. The report also includes replies received between 1 August 2011 and 31 January 2012, relating to communications sent by special procedures mandate holders before 1 June 2010. Some of these replies supplement information communicated earlier by the respective State. 9. The report contains urgent appeals sent by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and joint urgent appeals sent by them together with other mandates. It does not contain other types of communications issued by these mandates, processed according to their own distinctive procedures, which are reported exclusively in the annual reports of these two working groups. 10. The names of some alleged victims have been obscured in order to protect their privacy and prevent further victimization. Names of concerned individuals who were subject to victim protection measures are mentioned only when the concerned individual has expressively consented or requested to include his or her name in the public report. In the original communications, the full names of the alleged victims were provided to the 6