Date Type Case No Country Mandate(s) Summary of the allegation transmitted Reply USA 16/2013 Indigenous 09/09/2013 United States of peoples; UA America 15/11/2013 Allegations concerning the situation of “Veronica”, an indigenous child who is the subject of a custody dispute. According to the information received, Veronica, an almost four year old Cherokee child who is the daughter of Dusten Brown, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, faced judicially ordered removal from her indigenous family and community to the custody of Matt and Melanie Capobianco, a non-indigenous couple. Reportedly, a court in the state of South Carolina awarded custody to the Capobiancos without allowing for a hearing or full determination about the best interests of Veronica, as ordinarily is done when custody or adoption is contested by a biological parent. ARM 1/2013 10/09/2013 Armenia JUA Allegations of threats and harassment of Armenian women’s non-governmental organizations and women human rights defenders. According to the information received, the Women’s Resource Centre, a grass-roots non-governmental organization combatting discrimination based on gender and providing psychological and legal support to survivors of gender-based violence in Armenia, has been the subject of online threats and calls for violence against it following the adoption of draft Law No. 57 on Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities for Men and Women by the Armenian Parliament in May 2013. Reportedly, extremist groups manipulating the meaning of some provisions in the above-mentioned law and disseminate misleading information on social networks sites describing women’s NGOs and women human rights defenders as, inter alia, “traitors of the nation” and “destroyers of families”. Discrimination against women in law and in practice; Freedom of expression; Freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; Human rights defenders; Violence against women; A/HRC/25/74 85

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