A/HRC/33/37 147. The Government must immediately cease its reprisals and threats against individuals who have cooperated with the independent experts and other human rights mechanisms and organizations. 148. The deployment of African Union human rights and military observers should be completed and expanded in terms of their numbers and the areas they cover, to include regions beyond the capital. Their status should be recognized through a memorandum of understanding and their reports should not be subject to clearance by the Government. 149. The Government must urgently comply with Security Council resolution 2303 (2016). 150. The Government must stop its reprisals and threats against Burundian refugees abroad. Any repatriation of refugees must be undertaken in compliance with international human rights standards and be aimed at facilitating the return of displaced persons to their areas of origin. 151. The Government must ensure that the rights to freedom of expression and association are fully enjoyed by all citizens and groups. It must therefore cease all interference with the media and non-governmental and other civil society organizations in the country. 152. The Government should immediately ratify, without reservations, the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. To non-State actors 153. All non-State actors must prioritize the protection of civilians and refrain from committing human rights abuses. To the United Nations system and the African Union 154. Given the ineffectiveness of the accountability institutions set up by the Government, independent international judicial processes must consider whether international crimes were committed. All relevant stakeholders, in particular the African Union and the United Nations, must remain seized of the matter, monitor the situation scrupulously 38 and take the steps necessary to prevent the occurrence of further mass violations with ethnic connotations. 155. Should the Government continue to fail to comply with Security Council resolution 2303 (2016) and should the violations continue, the independent experts call upon the United Nations, in particular the Security Council, to discharge effectively its mandate to ensure peace and security, and to protect, without prejudice to the primary responsibility of the Burundian authorities and the basic principles of peacekeeping set out in the statement by the President of the Security Council of 25 November 2015 (S/PRST/2015/22), the civilian population from threat of physical violence, under chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations. 156. A commission of inquiry should be established immediately to continue the work accomplished by the independent experts, giving due consideration to the continuation of the collaboration between the United Nations and the African Union in that regard. The commission should be mandated to ensure individual accountability and share the findings with the Security Council with a view to 38 See www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=54757#.V8UilU1f3cs. 23