A/HRC/34/53 Annex Main data on communications sent by the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on minority issues (2005-2016) 1. From 1 August 2005 to 1 December 2016, the Special Rapporteur on minority issues sent a total of 239 individual communications to Governments. In 2005, the first year of the mandate, only one communication was sent. Since then, there has been an almost steady increase in the number of communications sent annually, with the highest number of communications sent in 2011, when the current mandate holder took office. The breakdown in the number of individual communications sent each year is shown in the figure below (the figure for 2016 is as of 1 December). 2. The distribution of communications by region during the period under examination was also analysed. The largest number of communications (118) were sent to States in the Asia-Pacific region. The Europe and Central Asia region came second, with 75 communications, followed by the Middle East and North Africa region, with 21. Countries in the Americas region received 16 communications, while the Africa region received 9 communications. 3. Out of the 239 communications sent by the Special Rapporteur, 232 were addressed to Governments jointly with other mandate holders; only 7 communications were sent by the Special Rapporteur alone. Altogether, the number of joint communications amounted to 97 per cent of the total number. 4. Of the joint communications, 118 were joint allegation letters and 114 were joint urgent appeals. The Special Rapporteur sent one allegation letter and six urgent appeals 22