(Geneva) - States must respond in swiftly and clearly to allegations of human rights violations by UN rights experts, International Service for Human Rights said.

(Geneva) - States must respond in swiftly and clearly to allegations of human rights violations by UN rights experts, International Service for Human Rights said.

In a statement delivered to the Human Rights Council, ISHR deplored the troubling picture of threats and attacks against civil society actors and human rights defenders shown in a recent UN report documenting human rights violations around the world.

'The work of human rights defenders is critical to healthy societies that respect human rights and the rule of law', said Michael Ineichen, Human Rights Council Advocacy Director at the International Service for Human Rights. 'Nevertheless, many governments continue to ignore allegations of human rights violations sent to them on a regular basis by UN human rights experts', Mr Ineichen said.

ISHR cited the examples of letters sent to Malaysia regarding its 1948 Sedition Act, alleging the silencing of people like Eric Paulsen, co-founder of Lawyers for Liberty and Zulkiflee Ulhaque, human rights defender and cartoonist, who were arrested and detained for Tweets critical of the Malaysian government. Other examples include that of two Bahraini women, Zainab Al-Khawaja, a human rights activist absurdly sentenced to more than 4 years prison last year for tearing up a picture of the King and insulting a public servant, and Ghada Jamhseer, Head of Women’s Petition Committee, repeatedly arrested and detained for criticising alleged corruption in King Hamad hospital in Bahrain.

Neither of these emblematic cases received a reply from the government concerned.

For allegations sent in the last few months along, 36 States have not responded to communications and 10 are even Human Rights Council members including: India, Indonesia, Kenya, Pakistan, the Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Venezuela and Ethiopia.

'Some States have not yet responded formally to the UN, but have assured ISHR of forthcoming responses,' Mr Ineichen said. 'We appreciate such efforts at cooperating more fully with the UN human rights experts, in order to contribute to the investigation of human rights abuses and to hold perpetrators to account', Mr Ineichen concluded.

While States that are [members of the Human Rights Council] in principle commit to cooperating in good faith with all of the UN's human rights experts, not all governments do. Some States attack UN experts for their work.

'It's not acceptable that members of the Council be allowed to ignore the very institution of which they are members', Mr Ineichen said. 'The President of the Human Rights Council, currently German Ambassador Joachim Rücker, has an institutional responsibility to make sure that information about the level of cooperation with UN human rights experts is readily available to States when they elect members to the UN's top human rights body', Mr Ineichen said.