PART D: Torture in the Promotional Mandate of the African Commission Only 8 States are up-to-date with their periodic reports; 8 others have one periodic report overdue; 6 have two reports overdue and 6 have 3 reports overdue, while 15 are overdue by more than three reports.586 National NGOs should remain informed about the status of State reporting in their particular countries and should encourage States to submit timely reports. Rule 74 of the Commission’s Rules of Procedure, as revised in 2010, provides for a participatory role for civil society organisations in the State reporting process, in particular in the form of ‘shadow reports’, which are submitted as supplements to a governmental report. Under Rule 74, ‘institutions, organisations or any interested party wishing to contribute to the examination of a [State] Report and the human rights situation in the country concerned, shall send their contributions, including shadow reports, to the Secretary at least 60 days prior to the examination of the Report’. Under this Rule, ‘the Commission shall explore all the pertinent information relating to the human rights situation in the State concerned, including statements and shadow reports from National Human Rights Institutions and NGOs’. In preparing a shadow report on the general situation in a State Party, a copy of the State report is not necessarily required. Ideally, though, NGOs should obtain the State report and submit targeted comments and questions arising from its content. Another approach is NGO participation in report drafting at the national level. In fact, questions routinely posed suggest that the Commission mandates such an approach. NGOs should not be required to participate; NGOs that choose to participate, however, should make sure to retain the right to submit dissenting alternative reports. What seems clear is that NGOs must play a role in follow-up. NGOs should attempt to obtain ‘concluding observations’, which contain recommendations to States, and should use them as lobbying and advocacy tools.587 The Commission’s concluding observations may be a powerful basis for advocacy efforts because they represent an objective and distinctly African analysis of States’ human rights obligations. XVIII. Special Rapporteurs Due to frustration with States’ refusal to comply with reporting obligations, andthe need to address issues of particular concern, the Commission has established a number of Special Rapporteurs. The Special Rapporteur on Prisons and Conditions of Detention in Africa is particularly relevant to the issue of ill-treatment and deserves our particular attention. 586 Ibid. For further information, see: www.achpr.org/states/reports-and-concluding-observations/. 587 For further information on civil society organisations’ engagement in the framework of the State reporting procedure, see: http://co-guide.org/mechanism/ african-commission-human-and-peoples-rights-state-reporting-procedure. 137