A/HRC/19/40 G. Bahey el-din Hassan 35. Bahey el-din Hassan, General Director, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, stated that his presentation would be dedicated to the millions of citizens within the Arab region and beyond who had sacrificed and continued to sacrifice their lives and their safety in peaceful protests and acts of civil disobedience in order to demand a dignified life. Mr. Hassan saluted the courage and consistency that the High Commissioner had demonstrated in the promotion and protection of human rights in relation to the pro-democracy protests that have been occurring throughout the Arab world over the previous 10 months, and were continuing. 36. Mr. Hassan argued that the current peaceful protests that had swept through the Arab region had done more to defeat Al-Qaida and their philosophy of political violence, than the assassination of Osama Bin Laden or the vast amount of money and resources spent on counter-terrorism activities between various Governments. 37. Mr. Hassan further stated that, since December 2010, an absence of serious, constructive and comprehensive dialogue with groups organizing protests and the consistent refusal to respond to their legitimate political, economic and social demands had led to the current political and human rights crises’ unfolding throughout the Arab region. He declared that almost all Arab Governments had resorted to violence, including the use of live ammunition, extrajudicial killings, mass arrests, torture and ill-treatment and the use of forced disappearances in response to such protests. Laws had been passed that attempted to give authorities legal cover to use methods of intimidation and repression, including the use of states of emergency in illegitimate ways. Government media sources, often the only regular news source available due to severe restrictions on the freedom of the media, had been used to incite violence, hatred and defame the character and aims of reformists, protest movements and civil society actors. 38. Mr. Hassan noted that the primary responsibility for ensuring the respect for human rights in the context of protests fell squarely on the Government of the country experiencing such protests. However, within the international realm, the unreliability of politics to provide swift and consistent protection should be guarded against. To that end, the international community should begin to put in place a holistic framework to guide Governments and the international actors on how to provide human rights protection and promotion in responding to protests. 39. Mr. Hassan advocated the creation by the Council, to be adopted by the General Assembly, of a declaration on the guidelines and principles for the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of peaceful protests. He referred to the following list of examples of guidelines and principles that had arisen from lessons learned within the Arab region, as provided in his circulated written statement: (a) the right to life and the right to be free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, must be guaranteed by States to all individuals under all circumstances; (b) Government leaders and the head of State of a country experiencing large-scale protests should, without undue delay, clearly and publicly express the Government’s intention to ensure the fundamental rights of those protesting were respected and that any Government security forces that unduly committed acts of violence or cause harm to peaceful protesters could be held criminally responsible; (c) as provided by international law, the use of foreign nationals and mercenaries to respond to public demonstrations and protests, as well as the use of nonregulatory forces, should be prohibited; (d) the use of military forces and irregular militia to respond to peaceful public demonstrations should be prohibited; (e) anti-riot police and police responding to protests should not be representative of a particular ethnic, racial, religious or political group within a country; (f) protests, sit-ins, demonstrations of a peaceful nature, and other forms of social mobilization associated with peaceful political 11