A/HRC/44/50 laws; the criminalization of peaceful protest; the indiscriminate and excessive use of force to counter or repress peaceful protest; the stigmatization of and attacks against civil society actors; and censorship and surveillance of the digital space.17 25. While these trends have negatively affected all who exercise their rights to peacefully assemble and freely associate, the mandate holder has paid special attention to issues affecting the most marginalized groups of society. In a series of reports, the mandate holder exposed the greater risk facing persons with disabilities; non-nationals; migrants and refugees; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons; members of minority groups; 18 environmental human rights defenders and indigenous peoples; 19 workers, including global supply chain workers, informal workers, migrant workers and domestic workers; 20 and people living in poverty.21 These reports have shone a spotlight on the ways in which the denial of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association leads to the marginalization of those groups and how marginalization exacerbates major global problems, such as poverty, inequality and conflict. 26. In other reports, the mandate holders haves sought to identify global threats to freedom of assembly and association in special contexts and circumstances, such as during elections, 22 in the workplace, 23 in natural resource extraction 24 and in the age of digitalization. 25 The reports explored the specific dynamics of violations and abuses in those contexts and provided tailored recommendations aimed at positive reform. Similarly, these efforts have been aimed at understanding root causes and ideologies that lead to and sustain those trends, including the surge in fundamentalism in many contexts across the world. 26 3. Elevating the importance of assembly and of association at the United Nations 27. The mandate holders have consistently encouraged and collaborated with United Nations institutions, bodies and mechanisms to strengthen their work in promoting and protecting the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. This area of work produced significant results. Throughout the decade, a great number of panel discussions, sessions, resolutions, reports, policies and programmes have focused on assembly and association rights. While the special rapporteurs were not solely responsible for the increased attention to these freedoms, a number of States and civil society organizations, in their responses to the questionnaire, highlighted the significant contribution of the mandate to elevating and bringing substance to those discussions. 28. For instance, the mandate holder collaborated closely with the Council towards the adoption of its resolution 24/21 – its first on civil society space – in September 2013. That groundbreaking resolution, in which the Council urged States to create and maintain, in law and in practice, a safe and enabling environment for civil society, was adopted after fruitful discussions between member States, civil society and the mandate holder. The Special Rapporteur has since continued to collaborate with the Council in the adoption of resolutions on this issue, including Council resolutions 27/31, 32/31 and 38/12. Another noteworthy example is Council resolution 19/35, the first Council resolution on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of peaceful protests, which was adopted on 23 March 2012. This resolution, together with Council resolutions 22/10, 25/38, 31/37 and 38/11, resulted from the mandate holder’s cooperation with civil society and member States. 29. Moreover, the Council has paid greater attention to violations of both rights in the framework of the universal periodic review.27 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 8 A/HRC/38/34. A/HRC/26/29. A/HRC/29/25. A/71/385. A/74/349. A/68/299. A/71/385. A/HRC/29/25. A/HRC/41/41. A/HRC/32/36. A/HRC/42/5, para. 119.83; A/HRC/42/12, para. 111.47; A/HRC/42/15, paras. 134.50 and 134.120; A/HRC/42/16, paras. 125.60, 125.63, 125.67 and 125.79.