A/HRC/44/50/Add.4 111. OL 11/09/2019 Case no: TUN 5/2019 State State: 20/11/2019 Informations concernant le projet de loi sur le droit de réunion pacifique en remplacement de la loi n. 196-4 de 1969 Responses to communications 112. During the present reporting period, the Special Rapporteur sent 27 communications to 12 countries in the Middle East and North Africa region, receiving responses to 15 of them. The response rate for the region was 55 per cent, a considerable increase from the response rate noted in the previous reporting period. The Special Rapporteur encourages States to continue their engagement with his mandate and looks forward to receiving responses to the other communications in the near future. Freedom of peaceful assembly 113. This report provides observations to communications sent by the Special Rapporteur concerning the right to freedom of assembly to Algeria, Egypt, and Mauritania. He thanks the Governments of Algeria, Egypt and Mauritania, for their replies dated 20 April 2020, 08 April 2020, and 24 April 2020 respectively, and looks forward to receiving a response to the remaining communications sent to Governments of Algeria, and Egypt. The Special Rapporteur hopes to receive these replies soon and looks forward to a constructive engagement with these governments. 114. In Algeria, M. Slimane Hamitouche, a member of the national coordination of disappeared families was violently arrested and detained on 7 March 2020. At the police station, he was severely beaten and blamed for continuing to protest despite previous warnings to him. He had been interrogated on numerous occasions for his activities related to the association of families of the disappeared. Mr. Hamitouche was subject of previous communications sent to the State about him, in particular DZA 4/2010, DZA 2/2012, and DZA 3/2016. The Special Rapporteur thanks the Government of Algeria for its response dated 20 April 2020, however he regrets that no translation of the response was available at the time of writing and therefore the content of the response could not be analysed. 115. In Egypt, the Special Rapporteur remains preoccupied at the arrest, detention and prosecution under terrorism-related charges of human rights defenders, critics and peaceful protesters for the exercise of their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. Mr. Mostafa Maher Ibrahim Tantawi and Mr. Haytham Mohamadein, both human rights defenders, were arrested in May 2019 and detained under charges such as “aiding a terrorist organisation in achieving its goals”, “calling for illegal protests” and “misuse of social media”. These arrests were preceded by a wave of mass arrests during March 2019, of at least 196 individuals, on the basis of their suspected intention to engage in demonstrations denouncing the Egyptian Government’s role in and response to the accident which took place in Ramses Station in Cairo on 27 February 2019. Large numbers of those arrested were subjected to periods of incommunicado detention at unknown locations, potentially amounting to enforced disappearances. 116. These periods varied between 3 and 20 days. In several of the cases, torture and other ill-treatment occurred, including beatings, the use of electric shocks, hanging in stress positions and sexual assault. The Special Rapporteur raised strong concern that the judicial processes to which they were subjected were directly connected to their legitimate human rights work and that they stand as emblematic cases within broader wave of arrests, which appear to be aimed at restricting the rights of freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression in Egypt and to form part of the continuing shrinking of civic space in the country. The Special Rapporteur wishes to invite the State to enhance its engagement with Special Procedures and provide a reply to communications pending one. 117. The Special Rapporteur also expressed concern over the arrest of 15 individuals for organising and participating in a peaceful assembly, including Mr. Mohamed Ould Hayda, Mohamed Ould Jedou, Ahmed Mohamed El Moctar, Mohamed Abarrahmane Haddad, and {…}. Some of the participants in this assembly were members of organisations promoting separation of State and religion in Mauritania. The individuals mentioned above were at risk of execution based on article 8 of law N°64.098 of June 1964 on associations and article 306 26