A/HRC/12/44 page 2 Summary The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 10/32, in which the Council expressed its serious concern about the situation of human rights in Somalia and renewed the mandate of the independent expert for a period of six months, requesting him to present an update to his report to the Council at its twelfth session. In his previous report submitted to the Council (A/HRC/10/85), the independent expert described the situation in Somalia as one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world today. The independent expert still holds that view and indeed believes that the situation has worsened in recent months, with renewed violence and bloodshed. The Somalis with whom the independent expert met almost universally expressed their dismay at the fact that the international community’s attention to Somalia has remained woefully limited. However, while reporting on the context of their plight, the independent expert reports on the new hope that he observed among Somalis and others met during his recent mission to the region. The independent expert undertook his third mission to Somalia from 1 to 13 June 2009, a year since his first mission to Somalia and the neighbouring countries. While in November and December 2008 he was unable to visit Somalia at all as the entire country was under the highest United Nations security alert (phase V), in June he was able to visit the north-western and north-eastern regions, namely Somaliland and Puntland. The south-central region of Somalia, which has witnessed continuous armed conflicts for almost two decades, remains out of bounds. In the present report, the independent expert presents background information on the activities conducted during the mission, the places visited and the people met. He outlines developments since his previous report in the fields of security, human rights and humanitarian law, including the human rights situation in Puntland and Somaliland. He then shares some personal observations on the Somali crisis generally before concluding with some recommendations for stakeholders. The report covers the period from March to August 2009. The information presented is based on the independent expert’s meetings with Somali stakeholders, members of the Transitional Federal Government and Parliament, civil society organizations and the United Nations, as well as on reports of the Human Rights Unit of the United Nations Political Office for Somalia and international non-governmental organizations, among others.