A/HRC/27/38 visit to Ms. Cao in hospital and her participation in the training course. At the time of finalization of the present report, no reply had been received from the Government to the joint communication sent. 20. On 18 March 2014, Ti-Anna Wang, the daughter of Wang Bingzhang, founder of the overseas Chinese Democratic Movement and imprisoned since July 2002, testified under agenda item 4 of the twenty-fifth session of the Human Rights Council on the situation of human rights in China in general, and on the detention of her father specifically. The following day, prior to the scheduled adoption of the second universal periodic review report of China, an individual wearing a badge of the China Association for Preservation and Development of Tibetan Culture took photographs of Ms. Wang, her computer screen and belongings. United Nations security officers escorted the individual from the room where the Council session was taking place. The individual’s ground pass was subsequently withheld for the rest of the session.25 At the time of finalization of the present report, no reply had been received from the Government to a joint communication sent by several special procedures mandate holders. 4. Cuba 21. During the fifty-fifth session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Laritza Diversent and Yaremis Flores, two representatives of the NGO Cubalex, were reportedly subjected to harassment, intimidation and reprisals. As they arrived at Geneva airport on 7 July 2013, an individual, later identified as a staff member of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Cuba to the United Nations Office at Geneva and other international organizations in Switzerland, took pictures of them without permission, telling them that he knew who they were. The following day, during a private NGO briefing, members of NGOs allegedly linked to the Government of Cuba harassed and insulted Ms. Diversent and Mr. Flores. The same individual who had photographed them at the airport took pictures of them during the Committee’s informal public NGO briefing, saying, among other things, “I know what they are doing”. The Chair of the Committee and four special rapporteurs drew attention to those events in separate letters,26 to which the Government of Cuba replied on 29 July 2013 and 19 August 2013 respectively. In its reply to the special rapporteurs, the Government provided detailed information on the case and rejected the allegations.27 5. Democratic People’s Republic of Korea 22. The work of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was hampered as a result of fear of reprisals against anyone cooperating with the Commission, or their relatives still residing in the country. The fear of reprisals was experienced by alleged victims, experts on the situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, aid workers, journalists and diplomats. As a result, the Commission heard publicly only from alleged victims and witnesses who had no close family left in the country and were otherwise deemed not to be at too high a risk.28 The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, via its official news agency, described the testimonies before the Commission as “slander” against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, put forward by “human scum”.29 25 26 27 28 29 8 A/HRC/27/72, case CHN 4/2014. A/HRC/25/74, case CUB 4/2013. Ibid. A/HRC/25/63, para. 19, and A/HRC/25/CRP.1, paras. 34, 51, 53, 58 and 59. Oral update by the Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, twenty-fourth session of the Human Rights Council, Geneva, 16 September 2013.