A/HRC/WGEID/125/1 investigation. Reportedly, the three existing avenues to seek recourse against the failure to search for the disappeared, investigate and hold those responsible accountable (i.e. the Police Internal Oversight Unit, the National Human Rights Commissions or the courts) would be essentially set up to fail. Victims and their relatives are thus allegedly left without an effective remedy and redress. 9. The Working Group also learned about the alleged existence of legal mechanisms that would facilitate the impunity of perpetrators, including the constitutionally guaranteed right of the parliament to provide indemnity through law to any State officer for any act done to maintain or restore order, and to lift any sanctions inflicted on this person; the need to obtain prior government approval to bring criminal charges against public officials for offences committed while acting in official capacity; and military laws shielding members of the armed forces (including the RAB) from being prosecuted by the civilian justice system. Moreover, the sources reported that Section 13 of the Armed Police Battalions Ordinance makes it virtually impossible to prosecute any member of the RAB. 10. The Working Group would be grateful for your Excellency’s Government cooperation and observations on the following questions: (a) Please provide any additional information and any comment you may have on the above-mentioned allegations. (b) How does your Government ensure the right to a prompt and effective judicial remedy as a means of determining the whereabouts of persons deprived of their liberty? (c) How does your Government ensure that persons suspected of having committed an offence of enforced disappearance are not in a position to influence the progress of an investigation by means of pressure or acts of intimidation or reprisal aimed at the complainant, witnesses, relatives of the disappeared person or their counsel, or at persons participating in the investigation? In particular, how does your Government secure that persons alleged to have committed an enforced disappearance are suspended from any official duties during the investigation of the corresponding complaint is carried out? (d) How does your Government ensure that individuals responsible for gross human rights violations, including enforced disappearance, undergo a thorough vetting process and are removed from security institutions, and are not allowed to participate in missions abroad, including UN peacekeeping operations? (e) How does your Government ensure that any person, having knowledge or legitimate interest, who alleges that a person has been subjected to enforce disappearance is able to lodge a complaint to a competent and independent State authority? How does your Government ensure that enforced disappearances are promptly, thoroughly and impartially investigated by the authority even if there has been no formal complaint and, especially, if it has been impossible to register such a complaint? (f) What steps does your Government take to protect complainants, witnesses, relatives of disappeared persons and their counsels, human rights defenders and members of associations concerned with attempting to establish the circumstances of enforced disappearances and assist victims of enforced disappearance from ill-treatment, intimidation (including through unwarranted surveillance) or reprisals? (g) What steps does your Government take to ensure that any ill-treatment, intimidation or reprisal or any other form of interference against the persons mentioned in the previous point is subjected to a prompt, thorough, independent and impartial investigation and those responsible are prosecuted and appropriately punished? (h) Which special measures has your Government undertaken to protect from harassment and reprisals the persons mentioned in the previous point and to investigate any corresponding instance of ill-treatment, intimidation or reprisal in the context of the COVID19 pandemic? (i) How does your Government ensure the right of victims and their relatives to an effective remedy, which should at minimum guarantee cessation of violations, restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition? 31