A/HRC/54/61 124. The Government responded to the note verbale sent in connection to the present report. State of Palestine 125. Annex II contains information on developments in the situations of several Palestinian and international women’s organizations and activists. VI. Conclusions and recommendations 126. The number of reported acts of intimidation and reprisal by State and non-State actors against individuals or groups seeking to cooperate or having cooperated with the United Nations remained high during the reporting period. Incidents were reported across all regions. Even so, the cases and situations reported do not reflect the actual breadth and scope of the issue. As in previous reports, some cases have had to be excluded and others are reported anonymously due to protection concerns. 127. In addition, the absence of allegations of reprisals in the report, or their decrease in certain contexts, is not necessarily a positive sign. In many countries, including long-standing democracies, the civic space and the protection of the basic rights and fundamental freedoms needed to engage with the United Nations have increasingly come under attack, both online and offline. Against this background, reporting on intimidation or reprisals, as well as responding to such allegations, has become more challenging. 128. While during the reporting period United Nations entities documented global trends similar to those identified in previous years, new tendencies have emerged. First, self-censorship, or the choice not to cooperate with the United Nations or to do so under conditions of anonymity due to fear of reprisals, including against relatives or co-workers, has increased. Alleged victims of reprisals requested anonymous reporting in almost two thirds of the Member States with new cases in the present report compared to one third in the previous year. 129. Second, online and offline surveillance of those who cooperate or attempt to cooperate with the United Nations was reported in half of the Member States included in the present report, with an observed increase in physical surveillance, probably linked to the return to in-person forms of engagement with the United Nations. 130. Third, Member States have enacted and applied laws and regulations concerning civil society, as well as counter-terrorism and national security, with the aim or effect of deterring or hindering cooperation with the United Nations. Dissolutions and de-registrations of civil society organizations, including en masse, were documented during the reporting period, which imposed additional obstacles to civil society engagement with the United Nations. As in previous years, human rights defenders and civil society actors continued to serve lengthy prison sentences on terrorism or national security charges due to their human rights work and for their cooperation with the United Nations. 131. As in past reports, recurrent allegations of repeated incidents of reprisals may signal patterns and several such cases or situations are illustrated in the present report. In addition, when multiple United Nations actors raise concerns about the same cases or situations during a reporting period, that can point to the severity and/or widespread nature of the incidents of reprisals in the Member States concerned. That continues to require our attention and deserves the engagement of all United Nations entities. 132. Victims of intimidation and reprisals have been subjected to serious human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests and detention, torture and ill-treatment, and even rape. Those at heightened risk included human rights defenders, activists and journalists, as well as victims of human rights violations, witnesses and their relatives, lawyers and trade unionists. GE.23-15378 17