A/HRC/13/42* page 118 required by article 4 (3) of the Covenant, of the provisions from which it had derogated and the reasons therefore, and of the termination of any particular derogation.449 243. The Human Rights Committee also expressed its concern at continuing reports of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, practices that it found to be facilitated by the resort to prolonged incommunicado detention, especially in cases of concern to the Supreme State Security Court, and by the security or intelligence services. As a consequence, the Committee recommended that the State party should take firm measures to stop the use of incommunicado detention and eradicate all forms of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by law enforcement officials, and should ensure prompt, thorough and impartial investigations by an independent mechanism into all allegations of torture and ill-treatment, prosecute and punish perpetrators, and provide effective remedies and rehabilitation to the victims.450 244. The experts note a recent report of Human Rights Watch in which concern is expressed at the current situation of the Kurdish community in the Syrian Arab Republic. The organization affirmed that, inter alia, the Emergency Law had been used to detain a number of leading Kurdish political activists without arrest warrants, and that 30 former Kurdish detainees, who were interviewed for the report, had been held incommunicado at the security branches for interrogations by security forces and that some of them had allegedly been subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment, including sleep deprivation and stress positions. Furthermore, it is ascertained that these people were only able to inform their relatives of their whereabouts after being transferred to ordinary prisons. According to the report, this practice has not only been used against Kurdish activists, but also against all political and human rights activists.451 245. In 2009, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances transmitted eight cases concerning members of the Kurdish community of Kamishli who had been allegedly abducted in 2008 and whose whereabouts remain unknown.452 246. In the context of the present study, the experts conducted an interview with Maryam Kallis, who was held in secret detention in Damascus from 15 March to 7 June 2009.453 According to her report, Ms. Kallis was held in the basement of a building located in a private area in Baab-Tooma, Damascus, which, she assumed, could have been run by the Mukhabarat, the Syrian intelligence services. During this period, Ms. Kallis was taken blindfolded eight to ten 449 CCPR/CO/84/SYR, para. 6. 450 Ibid., para. 9. 451 Human Rights Watch, “Group denial, repression of Kurdish political and cultural rights in Syria”, 26 November 2009, pp. 44-49. Available from www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/11/26/group-denial. 452 A/HRC/13/31, para. 546. 453 Interview with Maryam Kallis (annex II, case 12).