A/HRC/34/52 per cent of communications respectively (99 cases involved Europe and Central Asia and 109 involved Africa). Summary of communications sent 2014 2015 2016 Asia and Pacific Region 80 (35%) 66 (32%) ca 76 (30%) The Americas 49 (21%) 41 (20%) ca 41 (16%) The Middle East and North Africa 37 (16%) 34 (16%) ca 57 (23%) Europe and Central Asia 37 (16%) 32 (15%) ca 30 (12%) Africa 26 (11%) 34 (16%) ca 49 (19%) 37. While these figures allow some trends to be discerned, it is important to bear in mind that they do not reflect cases not covered by the mandate. Many defenders and their families are unaware that they can contact the Special Rapporteur and, given the urgency of the situations concerned, they sometimes prefer to turn to mechanisms or organizations that provide very short-term solutions. 38. As the Special Rapporteur has mentioned in his previous reports, he is very concerned about the recurrent and systemic weaknesses of the current communications mechanism. This mechanism, which many defenders consider to be their last resort, is severely hampered by the lack of cooperation of States that fail to reply to letters or send incomplete replies. These challenges are exacerbated by the fact that there are insufficient human resources to manage the ever-growing number of requests and to establish appropriate follow-up. At the present time, and despite enhanced cooperation between the teams supporting the Special Rapporteurs, it is possible to address only a limited number of requests to act on behalf of threatened defenders. Difficult choices must be made every day as there is insufficient capacity to respond to some urgent appeals. This is not acceptable. 39. Moreover, many people who submit files are informed that their claim is being considered only by an automatic e-mail acknowledging that it has been received. These individuals are then given no further information about how their claim will be processed and may remain in a state of uncertainty for weeks. Without breaking with the principle that communications between the mandate holder and the States concerned should remain confidential, it seems essential that both qualitative and quantitative improvements should be made to the system. Aware that such a change would go well beyond his mandate, the Special Rapporteur would like to consider it together with other mandate holders and with the support of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in order to respond to the expectations and needs of thousands of people on the ground. 40. For the reasons given above, and in view of a possible second mandate, the Special Rapporteur intends to carry out an analysis of communications and to propose ways of dealing with them. He also intends to examine the role that national actors, such as national human rights institutions or ombudsmen, can play in follow-up to communications. In addition, he plans to more systematically follow up on the communications sent to States and to send repeated reminders to countries that do not reply, or give unsatisfactory replies, to communications received. 41. Lastly, over the course of his discussions with persons on the ground, the Special Rapporteur came to realize that his reports on communications were largely passing unnoticed and were seldom used by defenders and the various stakeholders involved in protecting them. The Special Rapporteur therefore plans to take steps to ensure that these reports, whose contents are highly instructive, are made more accessible to key stakeholders. To that end, he intends to give thought to the question of how to improve the GE.17-00986 9