Seventy-third session

Item 73 (b) of the provisional agenda*

Promotion and protection of all human rights; human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms

Saving lives is not a crime

Note by the Secretary-General

The Secretary-General has the honour to transmit to the General Assembly the report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Agnes Callamard, submitted in accordance with Assembly resolution 71/198.

I. Introduction

The present report is submitted by the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, arbitrary or summary executions pursuant to General Assembly resolution 71/198 and Human Rights Council resolution 35/15. It summarizes the activities undertaken by the Special Rapporteur during the past year and includes her thematic report, focusing on the criminalization and targeting of life-saving and protection services to people in need.

II. Activities of the Special Rapporteur

A. Country visits

At the invitation of the respective Governments, the Special Rapporteur carried out official visits to the Republic of Iraq from 14 to 23 November 2017 (A/HRC/38/44/Add.1), and El Salvador from 25 January to 5 February 2018 (A/HRC/38/44/Add.2). The Special Rapporteur sent requests for official visits to the Governments of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Libya, the United States of America, the Syrian Arab Republic and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of), and reminders to Pakistan, Nigeria, Kenya and the Republic of Yemen. She thanks the Governments of Nigeria and Mozambique for responding positively to her country visit requests and encourages the Governments of the other above-mentioned States to extend an invitation for a visit in the near future.

B. Communications and press releases 5. Between 1 February 2017 and 31 July 2018, the Special Rapporteur issued, alone or jointly with other special procedures, a total of 183 communications to States and non-State actors and 78 press statements. Detailed information can be found in the observations on communications report (A/HRC/38/44/Add.3) and the Special Procedures public Communications database.

C. Meetings and other activities 6. The Special Rapporteur presented her second report to the Human Rights Council in March 2018 on the Human Rights Obligations of Armed non-State Actors with respect to the Right to Life (A/HRC/38/44).

From July 2017 to July 2018, the Special Rapporteur chaired, organized and/or participated in 22 international meetings, conferences and other events, a number of which are highlighted below. A full overview is contained in the observations on communications report (A/HRC/38/44/Add.3):

• Expert Workshop on Witchcraft and Human Rights organized by the Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights by persons with albinism (September 2017, Geneva);

• Global Compact on Migration, preparatory meeting (December 2017, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico);

• Briefing for United Nations Security Council Member States on Iraq organized by the Kingdom of the Netherlands (February 2018, New York);

• Expert meeting on the draft treaty on crimes against humanity (March 2018, New York);

• Expert panel on the accountability for killings of women and LGBTI persons during conflict, held in the margins of the Commission on the Status of Women (March 2018, New York);

• Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Celebration of the World Conference on Human Rights, Austrian Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs (May 2018, Vienna);

• Launch of the Inquiry Report of the All- Party Parliamentary Group, The UK's Use of Armed Drones: Working with Partners, (July 2018, London).

**III. Saving lives is not a crime **

“We, the undersigned, Jewish children hidden during the Second World War to escape deportation, solemnly declare: if we are alive, it is because solidarity offenders disobeyed, hid us, fed us, despite the laws of Vichy and the occupant. They opened their doors, falsified our identity, they kept silent ignoring the injunctions of the police and the administration, they took side roads against the persecution...

Their solidarity is now publicly recognized. We are grateful to them, as we are to the courage of our parents who have made the hard choice to separate from us and turn their children into "unaccompanied minors".

But this duty of solidarity also applies today and we call for the end of [these] intimidating processes. We proclaim the legitimacy of citizens' right of scrutiny over the practices of administration, justice or the police. We stand in solidarity with those who show solidarity with people in precarious situations without worrying about whether or not they are in a legal situation regarding their stay. We pass the torch of solidarity to whistleblowers, citizens critical of xenophobic policies, solidarity with everyday life”