A/HRC/41/41/Add.1 to bringing perpetrators to justice, and to safeguard the rights of demonstrators to life, to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of expression, among others. 27. Reports of excessive use of force against protesters were raised with the Government of Uganda (UGA 5/2018), who earlier that year also instituted a presidential decree introducing an Over-The-Top tax on telecommunications companies. Protests broke out in Kamwokya and Mityana following the arrests and killings of a number of members of the political opposition by the Uganda Police Forces and the Special Forces Command, an elite Presidential force. The protests were suppressed with tear gas and live ammunition. 28. Regarding the Over-The-Top tax introduced in Uganda (UGA 3/2018) in March 2018, the Special Rapporteur raised his joint concerns that such a tax, which would require over-the-top services such as WhatsApp, Skype, Viber and Facebook to pay UGX 200 (approximately USD 0.05) per user per day of access, could result in deleterious consequences for the freedom to assemble peacefully online. He is further concerned that such decree was not preceded by any form of public consultation. As of 1 July 2018, telecommunications companies in Uganda blocked access to social media platforms to all users, requiring them to pay for access in order to cover the tax costs. For some users, this added cost may have prevented them from actively participating in online spaces. The Special Rapporteur notes that restrictions to freedom of peaceful assembly, which includes online assembly, must be prescribed by law. The Special Rapporteur also notes that in the context of the aforementioned protests in Zimbabwe and Sudan, internet shutdowns occurred which also hindered the organisation of assemblies and jeopardised the right to freely assemble peacefully online. 29. In Comoros, the Special Rapporteur expressed his worries over the apparent crackdown on freedom of assembly in the context of a constitutional referendum regarding the abolition of presidential term limits (COM 1/2018). According to allegations received, beginning in the month of May 2018, authorities banned assemblies and demonstrations across the country without justification. These bans were accompanied by a strong police presence, the closing of public spaces which would ordinarily be used for assemblies and the arrest of protest organisers. This crackdown is associated with allegations of the general shrinking of civic space in Comoros, illustrated by the arrests of approximately 80 opposition politicians, writers, lawyers and police officers for their alleged participation in an attempted coup d’état, and comments from the Minister of Interior which threatened the imprisonment of protesters and those with dissenting voices. Freedom of association 30. The Special Rapporteur sent communications concerning the right to freedom of association to Ethiopia, Mozambique, Burundi, Malawi, Sierra Leone and South Sudan, among others during the reporting period. The Special Rapporteur thanks the Government of Sierra Leone for its reply dated 15 February 2019 and urges those States who have not yet provided responses to do so at the earliest available opportunity. 31. Of the communications listed above, the Special Rapporteur takes note of three communications sent regarding legislation or regulations concerning non-governmental organisations, which may have the effect of unjustly limiting their right to freedom of association. 32. In Burundi (BDI 3/2018), the Special Rapporteur raised concerns over the declaration made by the National Security Council to suspend the activities of international NGOs from 1 October 2018 for three months. According to the declaration, the suspension of these international NGOs was implemented in order to ensure conformity with a 2017 law which regulated them, as allegedly most of the 130 international NGOs in the country were not respecting it. To this end, all of the international NGOs in Burundi were required to submit a number of documents to the Minister of Interior in order to show conformity. Without rendering an assessment on the law, which requires strict financial assessments of these organisations and ethnic quotas of employees, the blanket suspension of all international NGOs in Burundi appears to have been a disproportionate affront to freedom of association in the country. Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur notes that the suspension of the activities of these NGOs may have been done without due regard being given to the 6