Universal-Womens-accesss-to-justice-Publications-Practitioners-Guide-Series-2016-ENG

V
WOMEN’S ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE 349
that its identity be revealed. 953 The text of all communications
sent and the responses to them are confidential until they are
published in the relevant reports of the mandate-holders or the
mandate-holders determine that the specific circumstances
require action to be taken before the time of publication. 954 The
names of alleged victims are normally reflected in the reports,
although exceptions may be made in relation to children and
other victims of violence in relation to whom publication of
names would be problematic. 955
Action: The response to communication by mandate-holders
may take the form of letters of allegation or of urgent appeals.
The decision to take action is at the discretion of the mandateholder.
956
Letters of allegations: Letters of allegations are used
to communicate violations that are alleged to have
already occurred and in situations where urgent appeals
are not needed. 957 In this case, governments have two
months to provide a substantive response. Some
mandate-holders forward the substance of the replies
received to the sources of information. 958
Urgent appeal: mandate-holders may resort to urgent
appeals in cases where the alleged violations are timesensitive
in terms of involving loss of life, lifethreatening
situations or either imminent or ongoing
damage of a very grave nature to victims that cannot be
addressed in a timely manner by the procedure of
letters of allegation. 959 In the case of urgent appeals,
953
Ibid., para. 35.
954
Ibid., para. 37.
955
Ibid., para. 37.
956
Ibid., para. 40.
957
Ibid., para. 6.
958
Ibid., para. 48.
959
Article 10, Code of Conduct, op. cit., fn. 1510; Manual of
Operations, op. cit., fn. 1509, para. 43.