A/HRC/24/26 ideas with indigenous representatives, business enterprises and non-governmental organizations about the issue. The Special Rapporteur also launched an online forum for gathering inputs regarding specific cases of extractive projects affecting indigenous peoples. He will present his final report to the Human Rights Council on this issue in September 2013. 46. Between May 2012 and April 2013, the Special Rapporteur carried out country visits to the United States, El Salvador, and Namibia. In March 2012, he also held a consultation with indigenous representatives from throughout the Asia region in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to gather information about concerns of indigenous peoples in Asia. Within this time frame, the Special Rapporteur has also sent numerous communications to governments regarding specific cases. In many of these cases, the Special Rapporteur has sent follow-up letters to the governments concerned with his observations on the case and recommendations for addressing the issues involved in accordance with relevant international human rights standards. 47. The Special Rapporteur continued to cooperate with the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. They met to share work agendas, identify the strengths and limitations of their respective mandates, and explore methods of channelling their work in the most effective way. 48. During the reporting period, other special procedure mandate holders also looked into the situation of indigenous peoples within their respective mandates. For example, the report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women on gender-related killings of women addressed the extremely high levels of violence experienced by indigenous women (A/HRC/20/16). Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation referred in her thematic report to the Council on the links between stigma and the human rights framework (A/HRC/21/42) to the situation of indigenous peoples who are disproportionately excluded from access to water and sanitation and are often neglected in terms of access to services. 49. The Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes addressed indigenous peoples’ issues in the report of his visit to the Marshall Islands and the United States of America (A/HRC/21/48/Add.1) in which he recommended the implementation of mechanisms that strengthen the capacity of indigenous peoples to further their own development priorities. 50. Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food addressed indigenous peoples’ issues in a number of contexts, including in the report on his visit to Canada (A/HRC/22/50/Add.1), in which he drew attention, inter alia, to the long history of political and economic marginalization that has left many indigenous peoples living in poverty with considerably lower levels of access to adequate food relative to the general population. 51. The United Nations Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises called on States and businesses to address the heightened risk of vulnerability of groups, including indigenous peoples, affected by business activities. In its first report to the Human Rights Council, the Working Group recognized that some groups and individuals, including indigenous peoples, face particularly significant obstacles when seeking remedies for business-related human rights grievances. The Working Group further noted that indigenous peoples in all regions are profoundly and disproportionately affected by business-related activities, such as resource extraction and infrastructure development and the fact that they frequently face discrimination in law and social practice and are marginalized in the development of policies, laws and regulations that have a bearing on business and human rights issues that affect them. The Working Group therefore announced that it would specifically address the situation of indigenous peoples as a group vulnerable to the impact of business activities. 52. The Working Group met with indigenous experts in Copenhagen in November 2012, to discuss challenges relating to the implementation of the United Nations Guiding Principles 11