A/72/44 61. On 16 January 2014, the State party responded, questioning the admissibility of Alkarama’s complaint. On 8 May 2014, the State party proposed to send representatives to meet with the Committee about the human rights situation in the country. In November 2014, the Committee informed the State party that in the absence of an affirmative response to its request to conduct a visit, and in accordance with its normal procedure, it would proceed with its confidential inquiry without a visit. Information received from the State party 62. The State party provided two communications on the information received by the Committee. The first communication, transmitted on 4 October 2013, describes the State party’s constitutional and legislative guarantees prohibiting torture. In the second communication, transmitted on 16 January 2014, the State party denies the admissibility and reliability of the information submitted by Alkarama. The State party asserts that torture is not a systematic practice in Egypt and that, while some incidents of torture may have occurred, they are isolated incidents, which are investigated by the authorities. Information received from other sources 63. Between 2012 and 2015, the Committee received seven communications from Alkarama concerning the practice of torture in Egypt, containing at least 146 individual allegations of torture, most of which date from 2013 and 2014, as well as information concerning several mass claims. Alkarama’s communications allege that, despite many significant political changes, torture remained pervasive in Egypt from 2012 to 2015. 64. In addition, the Committee considered information concerning torture in Egypt from United Nations officials and bodies including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Special Rapporteur on torture and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, and from the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Those sources support the claim that torture was practised systematically in Egypt throughout the period of the inquiry. 65. The Committee also reviewed publicly available reports by the non-governmental organizations El-Nadeem Centre for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, Amnesty International, Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, the International Federation for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch and the United Group – Attorneys at Law, Legal Advisors and Human Rights Advocates. The reports detailed 94 individual alleged cases of torture between 2011 and 2015 and some organizations reported receiving thousands of claims. 66. The sources report that torture is carried out by Egyptian military, police and prison officials for the purposes of punishing protesters and, since 2013, supporters and members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and to coerce confessions and pressure detainees to implicate others in crimes. The practice of torture has allegedly been facilitated by a significant increase in arrests by the authorities since July 2013, as well as by the practice of detaining protesters at unofficial places of detention. The sources also reported the practice of sexual violence by State agents and excessive use of force in response to protests since 2011, resulting in thousands of deaths. The sources alleged that impunity for torture was widespread and was facilitated by the absence of an independent investigating authority for complaints of torture, the excessive use of military courts, a lack of regular independent monitoring of places of detention, and the inadequate independence and competence of the National Council for Human Rights. Conclusions and recommendations 67. The Committee considers, inter alia, that torture is practised systematically in a State party when it is apparent that the torture cases reported have not occurred fortuitously in a particular place or at a particular time, but are seen to be habitual, widespread and deliberate in at least a considerable part of the territory of the country in question (see A/48/44/Add.1, para. 39, and A/56/44, para. 163). 68. The information provided by non-governmental organizations and the findings of United Nations sources, including the Special Rapporteur on torture, reflected trends 13