A/55/290 (a) those who seek to cooperate or have cooperated with representatives of United Nations human rights bodies, or who have provided testimony or information to them; (b) those who avail or have availed themselves of procedures established under United Nations auspices for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms and all those who have provided legal assistance to them for this purpose (para. 1). In that resolution the Commission also requested all representatives of United Nations human rights bodies to continue to take urgent steps, in conformity with their mandates, to help prevent the hampering of access to United Nations human rights procedures in any way and the occurrence of such intimidation and reprisals (paras. 2 and 3). In the framework of the resolution, an urgent appeal was sent on behalf of human rights defenders who were believed to be seriously harassed in retaliation for their cooperation with the Special Rapporteur during a fact-finding mission. 21. The Special Rapporteur would also like to draw the attention of the General Assembly to the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which it adopted by its resolution 53/144 of 8 March 1999. The Declaration states that everyone has the right to offer and provide professionally qualified legal assistance or other relevant advice and assistance in defending human rights and fundamental freedoms (article 9, para. 3 (c)). It also stipulates that the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliations, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the Declaration (article 12, para. 2). 22. Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur would like to draw the attention of the General Assembly to the Principles on the effective investigation and documentation of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, also known as the Istanbul Protocol. The Principles were annexed to his previous report to the General Assembly (A/54/426); the attention of Governments was also drawn to the Principles by the Commission and were annexed to resolution 2000/43 adopted at its last session. The Principles state that alleged victims of torture or ill- 6 treatment, witnesses, those conducting the investigation and their families shall be protected from violence, threats of violence or any form of intimidation that may arise pursuant to the investigation (para. 3 (b)). 23. Finally, the Special Rapporteur welcomes the creation of a special mechanism to deal exclusively with the question of human rights defenders. As rightly stated during the 1999 meeting of special rapporteurs/ representatives, experts and chairpersons of working groups of the special procedures of the Commission on Human Rights and of the advisory services programme, while all existing mechanisms are committed to cooperating among themselves on this issue, it is understood that the nature of the problem was not one that could be covered satisfactorily by them alone in the discharge of their specific mandates (see E/CN.4/2000/5, para. 87 (p)). The Special Rapporteur is confident that in a spirit of cooperation and in order to avoid duplication of work, ways will be found, in particular within the Secretariat, to coordinate actions with the Special Representative of the SecretaryGeneral on human rights defenders. D. Reparation for victims of torture 24. Some international and regional human rights instruments impose a duty on States to provide access to justice as well as adequate and fair reparation for victims of human rights violations. With respect to violations falling within the Special Rapporteur’s mandate, he is guided by article 14 of the Convention against Torture which provides that each State party shall ensure in its legal system that the victim of an act of torture obtains redress and has an enforceable right to fair and adequate compensation, including the means for as full rehabilitation as possible. In the event of the death of the victim as a result of an act of torture, his dependants shall be entitled to compensation.2 25. The annex to the final report (E/CN.4/2000/62) of the independent expert of the Commission on Human Rights on the right to restitution, compensation and rehabilitation for victims of gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms, Cherif Bassiouni, contains the text of the basic principles and guidelines on the right to a remedy and reparation for victims of violations of international law and humanitarian law, which are said to reflect either existing international law or emerging norms on that matter.