CAT/C/DRC/CO/1 page 5 The State party should establish and promote an effective mechanism for receiving complaints of sexual violence, including in custodial facilities, and investigate the complaints, providing victims with psychological and medical protection. 13. The Committee notes with concern allegations of reprisals, serious acts of intimidation and threats against human rights defenders, especially those who report acts of torture and ill-treatment. The State party should take effective steps to ensure that all persons reporting torture or ill-treatment are protected from intimidation and from any unfavourable consequences they might suffer as a result of making such a report. The Committee encourages the State party to seek closer cooperation with civil society in preventing torture. 14. The Committee is concerned about the general vulnerability of abandoned children who are at risk of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, especially children used as combatants by the armed groups operating on the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The State party should adopt and implement emergency legislative and administrative measures to protect children, especially abandoned children, from sexual violence and to facilitate their rehabilitation and reintegration. The Committee further recommends that the State party take all possible steps to demobilize child soldiers and facilitate their rehabilitation and reintegration into society. 15. The Committee notes with concern the lack of statistics, especially on cases of torture, complaints and convictions of perpetrators. The State party should provide in its next periodic report detailed statistical data, disaggregated by crime, ethnicity and gender, on complaints relating to torture and ill-treatment allegedly committed by law enforcement officials, and on the related investigations, prosecutions and criminal and disciplinary sanctions. Information is further requested on any measures taken to compensate and provide rehabilitation services for the victims. 16. The State party is encouraged to disseminate widely the reports submitted by the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the Committee and the latter’s conclusions and recommendations, in appropriate languages, through official websites, the media and non-governmental organizations. 17. The Committee requests the State party to provide, within one year, information on measures taken in response to the Committee’s recommendations contained in paragraph 5 (a), (b) and (c) above. 18. The State party is invited to submit its next periodic report, which will be considered as its consolidated second to fourth reports, by 16 April 2009, the due date of its fourth report. -----