A/HRC/33/37 B. Recommendations To the Government of Burundi 138. The Government must immediately halt the gross and other human rights violations committed by its agents and other entities whose actions can be attributed to it, such as the Imbonerakure, and put into place effective accountability mechanisms and processes. 139. There is no way out of the crisis without a comprehensive political settlement. The Government should demonstrate, in word and in deed, its commitment to a political settlement, including through its active participation in the Arusha peace talks alongside all those involved in the crisis. It should refrain from any effort to manipulate the inter-Burundian dialogue for its own ends. 140. All youth militias urgently need to be disarmed. The disarmament should be scrupulously monitored by international entities. At the same time, the ruling party, in particular, should disavow the use of violence or threats of violence by its youth wing and ensure that it does not assume any sort of policing function. 141. All government officials must refrain from using hate or divisive speech. Those using such language should be prosecuted and hateful and divisive sentiments should always be publically disavowed, especially by high-ranking authorities. 142. The Government must take all the steps necessary to strengthen the independence of the judiciary. It should, with immediate effect, in law, rhetoric and practice, reaffirm its commitment to the principle of judicial independence and refrain from taking any action, including the levelling of direct or indirect threats to the judiciary, that undermines it. In the medium and long terms, it is crucial to resume the stalled discussions about constitutional reforms leading to limiting the power of the executive branch over the judiciary in terms of the appointment, promotion and disciplining of judges. 143. The Government must as a priority establish an effective torture prevention mechanism, in accordance with its obligations under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The international community should assist in that venture. 144. The Government must immediately cease using the intelligence services and the police force, in particular, as armed instruments in defence of a partisan political project. In the medium and long terms, ambitious and thorough security sector reforms, regarding both personnel and structural readjustments and review, will be necessary in order to establish an intelligence service and a national police force that all Burundians can trust. Effective civilian oversight mechanisms must be established over the security sector. Such mechanisms should be multi-layered and dispersed, so that oversight does not become a tool for the executive branch to exert political control over the security sector. 145. The integration of the armed forces stemming from the Arusha Agreement was a cornerstone of the peace that Burundi enjoyed for the first time in its history. The quota system should not be undermined, either overtly or covertly, either through the creation of special units that fail to conform to the agreed-upon distribution of positions or through the manipulation of budgets for different units of the forces to the same end. 146. The Government must cooperate with the international human rights system, including treaty bodies such as the Committee against Torture. It should also cooperate with efforts to monitor the human rights situation on the ground. 22