A/HRC/33/26 engaged with the Council and its mechanisms unfortunately continued and the global crackdown on civil society carried on. She pointed out that a prominent human rights defender who attended the Council many times had been arrested on that very same day. 17. Mr. Rücker said the Council did well in addressing freedoms of expression and of assembly and had become the central political forum for addressing human rights worldwide, including through the universal periodic review. When looking back at the previous 10 years, there were reasons to be proud and reasons not to be satisfied. When he had taken over the presidency he had identified three topics to be focused on: strengthening the relationship between New York and Geneva, including cooperation between the Human Rights Council and the Security Council; the need to become more efficient in view of tremendous inflation of the agenda of the Human Rights Council; and the need to have more impact on the ground. 18. Mr. Henczel said that the universal periodic review was a success, as the only mechanism that examined the human rights in all Member States in an equal manner. The Council should focus even more closely on implementation of the recommendations ensuing from the universal periodic review. Unsatisfactory progress of implementation was often the result of insufficient funds, especially in the case of the least developed countries. Recommendations submitted to those countries that required large investment should be directly linked to pledges of finance or technical assistance. The High Commissioner for Human Rights should highlight more clearly the assessment of the level of implementation of accepted recommendations. It could perhaps issue an implementation assessment report ahead of the review of every State. 19. Mr. Ndong Ella said that the Council now enjoyed a degree of authority, dignity and credibility. Most of the topics that were not resolved in the Security Council were dealt with by the Human Rights Council. During his mandate, with the permanent members of the Security Council and emerging States as members of the Human Rights Council, there had been a threat of politicization, polarization and confrontation. However, a constructive dialogue had been achieved. The Council was a victim of its own success in terms of the increasing number of meetings and resolutions. There was a need for a discussion with the Administrative and Budgetary Committee regarding the insufficient funding for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for the implementation of Council mandates. 20. Mr. Van Meeuwen stressed that to outsiders it often seemed that the Council sought agreement and consensus at any cost, even at the cost of lowering ambition and betraying its own mission. However, it was important to look into the political context in which the Council operated, and seeking consensus often brought about a lot of political agreement. There had been a situation when the Council had been at a stalemate for about 48 hours and tense moments that could even have jeopardized the human rights system itself, but the Council managed to succeed with the support of the Secretariat. 21. Ms. de Albuquerque recalled one of the achievements of the Council – the adoption of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, over whose negotiations she had presided. As a Special Rapporteur, it was very rewarding to hear in interactive dialogues of the progress reported by some countries in implementation at the national level of recommendations of the Special Rapporteurs in the context of their country missions. Some of the challenges included not being allowed to visit certain countries, the lack of resources and the lack of follow-up and implementation of recommendations. She also regretted the lack of support to human rights by some members of the United Nations family. 5