A/HRC/34/52 the field, regular information-sharing and the participation of the Special Rapporteur, Michel Forst, as an expert before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. 57. According to Salvatore Saguès, programme specialist at the International Organization of la Francophonie: During the period 2014-2017, the International Organization of la Francophonie further developed its collaboration with the Special Rapporteur through intermechanism meetings of defenders and other activities, which provided the Special Rapporteur with an opportunity to present his mission and working methods. We were then able to provide improved protection for defenders in the French-speaking world by helping them to better understand their rights and the risks that they face. 58. The Special Rapporteur appreciates the valuable cooperation of the European Union, with which he has carried out numerous activities. He met several times with the Working Party on Human Rights of the Council of the European Union and with the European Parliament. He also met with the delegations of the European Union during his visits to the field; it was during those meetings that he discussed the implementation of the European Union guidelines on human rights defenders. He thanks those delegations, which have provided assistance in a number of situations by facilitating interaction with civil society and with the most isolated defenders. Parliaments 59. During his mandate, the Special Rapporteur has intensified his interaction with parliaments. Parliaments are, in his view, key players in the implementation of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders at the national level. He has appeared before the parliaments of France, Germany and the United Kingdom in order to present his mandate and to explore avenues for joint action; he has, moreover, already raised the possibility of future activities with other parliaments, such as the Italian Parliament. Examples of such future opportunities include the designation of focal points within parliaments, in order to monitor the situation of defenders; and cooperation with parliaments of countries that are debating bills that present potential risks for defenders, in which case direct cooperation between parliamentarians would be beneficial. Universities 60. Recognizing that academia is a place where knowledge thrives and that it presents a unique opportunity for meeting students, the Special Rapporteur has sought to strengthen cooperation with academic institutions. Having spoken before a large number of university audiences, which proved extremely useful, he then proposed that academic institutions in Paris, Berlin, York (United Kingdom) and Sydney (Australia) should join forces with his mandate to provide practical assistance in developing necessary concepts and tools. According to Martin Jones, the Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York: The Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York attaches great importance to its work with the Special Rapporteur and welcomes in particular his collaborative approach, which combines research and the practical experiences of defenders at risk. A recent example of our collaboration is the support we provided with a global survey on good protection practices, the results of which informed the report submitted by the Special Rapporteur to the Human Rights Council. The report is innovative in that it presents a number of solutions to the problems faced by defenders and also a very useful set of criteria for evaluating protection practices (or, more accurately, a set of principles that should guide our activities). GE.17-00986 13