A/HRC/10/12 page 8 24. On 9 December 2008, on the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration on human rights defenders, the Special Rapporteur, together with the Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, the Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, and the Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, issued a joint statement in which they warned about the persistent challenges facing human rights defenders.6 This important joint initiative was the first of its kind, and illustrates the willingness of the Special Rapporteur to enhance her collaboration with regional mechanisms. D. Cooperation with non-governmental organizations 25. The Special Rapporteur continued the fruitful cooperation of the mandate with civil society at the national, regional and international levels. The Special Rapporteur regrets that, due to time constraints and budgetary restrictions, she was not able to participate in all the conferences and seminars to which she was invited. On occasions where the Special Rapporteur could not be present herself, she tried, as far as possible, to have a staff member represent her. 26. During the reporting period, the Special Rapporteur interacted on numerous occasions with members of non-governmental organizations, for instance in Geneva when taking up her functions, and during events in Brussels, Budapest, New York and Washington DC. She further attended, from 4 to 6 December 2008, together with the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, a regional consultation on violence against women and women human rights defenders, held in Nairobi. 27. The Special Rapporteur wishes to further stress the importance she attaches to engaging with human rights defenders from all regions. In this regard, she intends to make additional efforts to conduct consultations with defenders from the Middle East and Asia in the coming months. E. Cooperation with Member States 28. On 28 and 29 August 2008, the Special Rapporteur participated in the First Budapest Human Rights Forum held in Hungary. The theme of the Forum was the situation of human rights defenders in Central and Eastern Europe. 29. On 3 September 2008, echoing repeated calls from the General Assembly,7 the Special Rapporteur sent to all Member States a letter in which she called on them to “contribute to efforts for a better implementation of the Declaration by translating this instrument into the principal languages of your country, and by disseminating it widely among the State apparatus and the civil society, if such measures have not yet been implemented”. At the time of writing, 6 Available at http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/ 8378D3F377DEF832C125751A0051034F?opendocument 7 The call was last reiterated in General Assembly resolution 62/152, para. 10.