A/HRC/48/28 VI. Information received on cases of intimidation and reprisal for cooperation with the United Nations and its representatives and mechanisms in the field of human rights A. General comment 36. The present report includes cases based on information gathered between 1 May 2020 and 30 April 2021, in accordance with Human Rights Council resolutions 12/2 and 24/24, and contains information on acts of intimidation or reprisal against individuals and groups as established in paragraph 1 of resolution 12/2. 37. The information received has been verified and corroborated by primary and other sources, to the extent possible. Reference is made to United Nations publications, if the cases have been made public. Responses provided by Governments are summarized, including positive actions taken.52 38. The present report and the annexes thereto do not contain an exhaustive list of cases. The do no harm principle and the consent of the alleged victims to be named were strictly adhered to, and a risk assessment was made for each case received and deemed credible. As a result, cases were anonymized or omitted when the security risk of the individuals or their family members was deemed to be too high. Furthermore, a number of cases brought to the attention of the Secretary-General were addressed confidentially. 39. As with previous reports on the subject, owing to the word limit, annex I contains additional information about new cases or situations presented during the reporting period that are summarized in the main report, with replies received from Governments to the notes verbales transmitted in connection with those cases. Annex II contains information on developments during the reporting period on ongoing cases included in previous reports, with replies received from Governments. 53 References are made in the present report to communications of special procedure mandate holders, and replies from Governments thereto, which may be found on the website for communications of special procedures.54 B. Summary of cases Belarus 40. Several human rights defenders and civil society organizations who regularly share information and testimony with the United Nations were reportedly targeted, including through raids, arbitrary arrests and criminal charges, in the preparation of the report of the High Commissioner issued in February 2021.55 Harassment and the criminalization of the Human Rights Centre, Viasna, reportedly intensified. 41. Special procedure mandate holders addressed allegations of criminalization, arbitrary detention, and ill-treatment of Mr. Sergey Drozdovskiy, of the Office for the Rights of People with Disabilities, in connection with the non-governmental organization’s cooperation with the United Nations.56 42. 52 53 54 55 56 8 On 13 August 2021, the Government responded. Government replies received by 27 August 2021 have exceptionally been included. Allegations regarding the following States, and replies received, are contained in annex II only: Andorra, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Colombia, Cuba, Djibouti, Guatemala, Iraq, Kuwait, Morocco, Russian Federation, Thailand and State of Palestine. https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/Tmsearch/TMDocuments. A/HRC/46/4. BLR 4/2021.