A/HRC/46/26 • To evaluate the effectiveness of cooperation shown by States in their responses and follow-up to official communications, and to country visit requests transmitted by the Special Rapporteur • To make recommendations to both States and relevant United Nations mechanisms with a view to (a) achieving the standard of “full cooperation” set by the Human Rights Council concerning the cooperation between States and the mandate, and (b) ensuring full compliance of States with their legal obligations arising from the universal, absolute and non-derogable prohibition of torture and ill-treatment 2. Scope 22. The present report covers official communications and country visit requests transmitted by the Special Rapporteur during the first four years of his tenure, from 1 November 2016 to 31 October 2020. Where appropriate and specifically indicated, the Special Rapporteur may also consider systematized information made available by previous mandate holders through, for example, reports containing observations on communications. 23. The cooperation of States during official country visits conducted by the Special Rapporteur is subject to separate reporting and, therefore, is not covered in the present report, nor are issues arising in relation to the follow-up of States to specific recommendations made in country visit reports. In the view of the Special Rapporteur, such issues are more appropriately and constructively addressed through bilateral dialogue. 24. The follow-up of States to the general recommendations made in the thematic reports submitted by the Special Rapporteur to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly will be subject to a separate State consultation to be conducted throughout 2021; depending on the outcome, they may warrant a separate evaluation and report to the Council at a later stage. C. Methodology 25. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of cooperation by States with the mandate holder, the Special Rapporteur analyses below all available information, including the responses received from States to official communications and country visit requests, in addition to the responses received to the State consultation questionnaire aiming to systematize the data requested. 26. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur describes three substantive levels of cooperation between States and the mandate, namely full, partial and no cooperation. This distinction is based primarily on the standards set by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 43/20, complemented by the Manual of Operations of the Special Procedures and the Code of Conduct for Special Procedures Mandate Holders, and other relevant instruments. 27. While Human Rights Council resolutions are politically authoritative but not legally binding, most of the measures of prevention, investigation, prosecution and redress recommended by the mandate holder reflect international legal obligations derived directly from the absolute and non-derogable prohibition of torture and ill-treatment. 28. Where official communications and country visit requests were submitted jointly by several mandate holders, the evaluation in the present report should be taken to reflect only the perspective of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, without prejudice to concurring, differing or complementary assessments that could be or may have been reached by other independent mandate holders on some or all of these cases. 29. Communications and requests on which the dialogue between the State concerned and the mandate holder is ongoing and being actively pursued are not evaluated in the present report but are marked “pending”. Likewise, the cooperation of States that have not received any communications or visit requests by the Special Rapporteur during the period under review will not be assessed in the present report. 6