A/HRC/57/60 35. Greater participation of civil society organizations in the work of the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, including through remote interactive engagement where possible, remains critical for its effective functioning. The Secretary-General reiterates his previous calls upon the Committee to ensure that the criteria applied for assessing organizations are fair and transparent. As previously highlighted, the continued deferral of applications for consultative status has, in some cases, amounted to de facto rejection, especially for organizations working on human rights.30 V. Information received on cases of intimidation and reprisal for cooperation with the United Nations, 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 2023 and 30 April 2024, 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 by the Council in its 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 or documents if the cases have been made public. Responses provided by Governments are summarized, including positive actions taken.31 38. The present report and its annexes do not contain an exhaustive list of cases. The principle of do no harm and the consent of alleged victims to being named were strictly adhered to. As a result, cases were anonymized or omitted when the security risk to 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 relevant notes verbales. Annex II contains information on developments during the reporting period on ongoing cases or situations included in previous reports that are listed in the main report, with replies received from Governments. References are made in the present report to communications of special procedure mandate holders and the replies from Governments thereto, which may be found on the website for the communications of special procedures. 32 B. Summary of cases Afghanistan 40. UNAMA documented incidents of reprisals against women, a civil society activist and media workers for their cooperation with the United Nation, including arbitrary detention by the de facto authorities. Names and details of those concerned are withheld due to the risk of further reprisals. 41. In addition to the risks faced by those cooperating with the United Nations in country, some Afghan women who spoke at United Nations events outside the country faced threats, including online or against their relatives for their engagement with the United Nations (see annex I). 30 31 32 8 A/HRC/38/18, para. 20; A/HRC/39/41, para. 23; A/HRC/42/30, para. 31; A/HRC/45/36, para. 37; A/HRC/48/28, para. 35; A/HRC/51/47, para. 28; and A/HRC/54/61, para. 35. Government replies received within the deadline have been included. See https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/Tmsearch/TMDocuments. GE.24-14259