A/HRC/42/50 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 39/2, in which the Council extended the mandate of the independent international fact-finding mission on Myanmar until the new Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar is established and becomes operational. The Council requested the mission to present its final report on its activities to the Council at its forty-second session. The present report focuses on the mission’s activities since September 2018, including consolidated findings from its previous report to the Council (A/HRC/39/64),1 and new findings on developments in the situation of human rights in the country.2 2. In view of its commitment to justice for victims and its handover to the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, the mission presents a number of options for the way forward in the pursuit of accountability for gross violations of human rights and serious violations of international humanitarian law. The mission will also submit further detailed findings and recommendations on the situation in Myanmar to the Council at its present session in the form of four conference room papers. 3. The mission comprised three experts: Marzuki Darusman (Indonesia, chair), Radhika Coomaraswamy (Sri Lanka) and Christopher Sidoti (Australia). 4. The mission regrets the continuing lack of cooperation from the Government of Myanmar, despite the numerous appeals made by the Human Rights Council and the mission. During the reporting period, the mission requested country access on 12 February 2019. It sent a detailed list of questions pertaining to the mandate of the mission on 28 March 2019. The mission received no official response to either communication. The present report was shared with the Government prior to its public release. No response has been received. II. Mandate and follow-up to Human Rights Council resolution 39/2 A. Interpretation of the mandate 5. In extending the mandate of the fact-finding mission, the Human Rights Council sought to avoid an investigative gap between the end of the mission and the operationalization of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar. The mandate given to the mission by the Council in its resolution 39/2 is therefore two-pronged. First, the mission continues its original mandate, as contained in Council resolution 34/22, to establish the facts and circumstances of the alleged recent human rights violations by military and security forces, and abuses, in Myanmar, in particular in Rakhine State, with a view to ensuring full accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims. Accordingly, the mission focused on investigating both alleged human rights violations and abuses perpetrated since the end of its previous investigation and some previously undocumented historical incidents and patterns of human rights violations and abuses. 6. Second, the Human Rights Council, in its resolution 39/2, mandated the mission to ensure that the large and continually increasing amount of evidence of human rights violations and abuses it has collected is fully documented, verified, consolidated and preserved in order for the material to be effectively shared, accessed and used by the mechanism. The mission interpreted this to mean that it must take all reasonable and appropriate measures for its materials to be effectively shared with the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar. The Mechanism was not yet deemed operational at the time of reporting. 1 2 See also the detailed findings of the fact-finding mission (A/HRC/39/CRP.2), available from www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/MyanmarFFM/Pages/ReportoftheMyanmarFFM.aspx. The detailed findings of the mission are contained in conference room paper A/HRC/42/CRP.5, available from www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/MyanmarFFM/ Pages/ReportoftheMyanmarFFM.aspx. 3