A/HRC/57/60 65. On 4 July 2024, the Government responded to the note verbale sent in connection to the present report recognising the important work done by justice officials in the fight against corruption and impunity in the country and expressing concern about the cases included in the report. The Government provided a number of factual corrections regarding ongoing legal proceedings concerning the cases described above that were incorporated into to the report. 11. Iraq 66. During the reporting period, the Human Rights Office of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) documented incidents of online intimidation of civil society organizations and human rights defenders by unidentified actors, in particular targeting those working on “gender” and “gender equality issues,” and including those participating in events organised by the United Nations Names and details of those concerned are withheld due to fear of further reprisals. 67. In its circular of 19 November 2023, the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers instructed that the term “gender” be replaced with the phrase “justice between the two sexes” in official government documents, updating its earlier circular of 27 July that had allowed the continued use of the term “gender” provided that it was followed by the phrase “men and women”.18 During the reporting period, the Human Rights Office documented increased government restrictions on civil society organisations whose activities explicitly support women’s empowerment and gender equality, including those engaging with the United Nations 68. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 19 and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in its concluding observations on Iraq’s fifth periodic report (E/C.12/IRQ/CO/5 paras. 10–11), encouraged the protection of human rights defenders, journalists, and lawyers. The day of the adoption of the concluding observations of several reports, including on Iraq, the Chair of the Committee underlined that no one should be subjected to reprisals for having cooperated or sought to cooperate with the Committee.20 12. Libya 69. During the reporting period, the Human Rights, Transitional Justice, and Rule of Law Division of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) reported several incidents of intimidation or reprisals against human rights and political activists for cooperation with the United Nations, described below. Names and further details are withheld due to fear of further reprisals. 70. Two male human rights defenders were targeted for their cooperation with the United Nations on human rights during the period. One of them was arbitrarily detained in Tripoli by members of the Deterrent Agency for Combating Organized Crime and Terrorism. Upon release, when he attempted to file a complaint on his arbitrary detention, he was rearrested and brought to the Attorney General’s Office, from where he fled. Afterwards, a family member of the said human rights defender was brought into custody and interrogated in relation to the defender’s work and cooperation with the United Nations. Furthermore, the two human rights defenders received death threats from members of the House of Representatives in connection to their human rights work and cooperation with the United Nations. 18 19 20 GE.24-14259 S/2024/96, para. 63. https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2023/08/un-human-rights-chief-ends-visit-iraq, S/2023/700, para. 54. https://www.ohchr.org/en/news/2024/03/committee-economic-social-and-cultural-rights-concludesseventy-fifth-session-after. 27