A/HRC/4/106 page 17 75. As part of the UNRIC communications strategy on human rights, United Nations special rapporteurs have regularly given briefings at the Centre, for media as well as for NGOs, think tanks and other civil society actors active in the field of human rights. UNRIC was also instrumental in organizing meetings for the special rapporteurs at the EU institutions, particularly at the European Parliament. It arranged a series of briefings by the President of the Human Rights Council for journalists, NGOs and EU representatives during his visit to Brussels. 76. UNRIC, along with EU, human rights NGOs and think tanks, established a group called “Friends of Human Rights in Europe”. This informal group is composed of representatives from the United Nations, the EU institutions, three main international NGOs in the field of human rights and three major international think tanks. In preparation for the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, OHCHR agreed that the Centre should take the lead in a Europe-wide public information campaign to be called “Know your rights”. 77. Being a regional information centre, UNRIC carried out a variety of activities to promote the issue of human rights in the countries that it covers. Examples include: speaking at a conference on “Volunteerism and human rights” in Portugal organized in cooperation with the Portuguese Youth Institute; lecturing at a three-day programme on “Human rights and conflict management” at the Scuola Sant’Anna in Pisa, Italy; giving interviews for Human Rights Day to a regional and a national radio station in Germany; opening a United Nations poster exhibit on the issue of torture at the University of Leuven, Belgium; chairing the annual human rights contest for students in France, which attracted approximately 2,000 participants and attendees; co-organizing events in Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece, focusing on violations of the rights of migrant women; organizing a seminar in Liège, Belgium, on violence against children, in cooperation with the French-speaking United Nations Association of Belgium; and lecturing on human rights and the Millennium Development Goals in Luxembourg and Belgium. 78. UNRIC’s multilingual website was regularly updated with backgrounders, press releases and other information material on human rights. Op-eds on the issue were regularly translated into up to 13 languages and placed on the website, which also contains core human rights material in many languages. The UNRIC library produced backgrounders on genocide and the Human Rights Council which were shared with other UNICs. D. Activities of other United Nations information centres and United Nations Offices 79. The Department’s network of other UNISs, UNICs and United Nations Offices conducted extensive media outreach in line with specific communications strategies, placing articles in local newspapers and publications, conducting radio, TV and print interviews, organizing events and arranging for placement of op-eds and official messages from senior officials in local publications. 80. Media outreach was also conducted to promote specific campaigns, publications or initiatives, including the establishment of the Human Rights Council, the launch of the Secretary-General’s study on violence against children and visits by human rights special rapporteurs. Articles relating to the new Human Rights Council, for example, were placed in local publications in Armenia, Burundi and Sri Lanka. Radio, TV or print interviews were conducted for Human Rights Day in Bangladesh, Brazil and India, and for International