Country Visits
Country visits take place at the
request of the relevant special procedure, at the invitation of the
country concerned or on the basis of a "standing
invitation".
During such missions, the experts assess the
general human rights situation in a given country, as well as the
specific institutional, legal, judicial, administrative and de facto
situation under their respective mandates. During the country visit
the experts will meet with national and local authorities, including
members of the judiciary and parliamentarians; members of the
national human rights institution, if applicable; non-governmental
organizations, civil society organizations and victims of human
rights violations; the UN and other inter-governmental agencies; and
the press when giving a press-conference at the end of the mission.
On the basis of the findings, they present their
conclusions and make recommendations, addressed, through their
public reports presented at the annual session of the Commission
on Human Rights, to the concerned Governments and their
partners.
Terms of Reference for Fact-finding missions by
Special Procedures
The terms of reference for country visits have been
adopted at the fourth annual meeting of the special rapporteurs
(E/CN.4/1998/45) and are intended to guide Governments in the
conduct of the visit. During fact-finding missions, special
rapporteurs of the Commission on Human Rights, as well as United
Nations staff accompanying them, should be given the following
guarantees and facilities by the Government that invited them to
visit its country:
(a) Freedom of movement in the whole country,
including facilitation of transport, in particular to restricted
areas;
(b) Freedom of inquiry, in particular as regards:
(i) Access to all prisons, detention
centres and places of interrogation;
(ii) Contacts with central and local
authorities of all branches of government;
(iii) Contacts with representatives of
non-governmental organizations, other private institutions and the
media;
(iv) Confidential and unsupervised contact
with witnesses and other private persons, including persons deprived
of their liberty, considered necessary to fulfil the mandate of the
special rapporteur; and
(v) Full access to all documentary
material relevant to the mandate;
(c) Assurance by the Government that no persons,
official or private individuals who have been in contact with the
special rapporteur/representative in relation to the mandate will
for this reason suffer threats, harassment or punishment or be
subjected to judicial proceedings;
(d) Appropriate security arrangements without,
however, restricting the freedom of movement and inquiry referred to
above;
(e) Extension of the same guarantees and facilities
mentioned above to the appropriate United Nations staff who will
assist the special rapporteur before, during and after the visit.
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