A/HRC/15/56 activities, with the participation of the various human rights mechanisms, NHRIs and NGOs; (ii) Several proposals were made. Firstly, international and regional human rights mechanisms should conduct joint country visits to follow up on the implementation of their recommendations.8 In addition, international and regional mechanisms can use their own country visits to follow up on the implementation of each other’s recommendations and include their findings into their respective reports; (iii) Meetings or workshops could be jointly organized by international and regional human rights mechanisms aimed at following up on the implementation of their decisions and recommendations, with the participation of governments, NHRIs and NGOs. Choosing a thematic focus would facilitate the task; (iv) Inter-secretariat cooperation mechanisms could also be established in order to develop a system to better support each other in following up recommendations. For instance, United Nations treaty bodies special rapporteurs for follow-up9 could ask regional human rights mechanisms for relevant information, in order to assess the degree of implementation by States of the concluding observations and recommendations of the various committees; (v) It was also proposed that the UPR be used as a follow-up tool. Participants agreed that the UPR should make more systematic use of cross references to the respective recommendations of international and regional mechanisms, and more systematic follow-up to UPR recommendations should be undertaken by human rights mechanisms;10 (vi) Finally, participants agreed on the important role played by NHRIs and NGOs in following up on the implementation of judgments, decisions and recommendations resulting from international and human rights mechanisms. It was suggested that cooperation arrangements be put in place in order to make cooperation between them more systematic, e.g. regular exchange of information and meetings between human rights mechanisms, NHRIS and NGOs on follow-up with a thematic focus. 8 9 10 See para. 46 (a). The Human Rights Committee, the Committee Against Torture, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women have instituted similar procedures to monitor the implementation of recommendations contained in their concluding observations. The rules of procedure of the first three mandate one or several Committee members to act as Special Rapporteur or as a working group for follow-up on concluding observations and views. In general, the Special Rapporteur ascertains the measures taken by States parties to give effect to the recommendations or views of the respective Committee. The Special Rapporteur may make such contacts and take such action as appropriate for the due performance of the follow-up mandate. He or she also makes such recommendations for further action by the respective Committee as may be necessary and regularly reports to the Committee on follow-up activities. The Committees include information on follow-up activities in their annual reports to the General Assembly. See para.45 (d) above. 15