A/HRC/34/24 the need to involve academia and the private sector in the process. Finally, he stated that Paraguay was currently working with OHCHR to extend the SIMORE model to cover the Sustainable Development Goals. 73. Ms. Joosten noted that it was important not to have two parallel processes for follow-up to human rights recommendations and the pursuance of the Sustainable Development Goals, bearing in mind that both processes would have their separate dynamics. She added that OHCHR was working to make the link with the Sustainable Development Goals in its Universal Human Rights Index. In response to a question on whether the national human rights follow-up process had helped Belgium to identify technical cooperation needs, she replied positively and stated that two horizontal issues had been identified, namely, data collection and indicators. In this regard, Belgium developed a national action plan on racism, in liaison with OHCHR. Ms. Joosten noted the usefulness of exchanges among States at the multilateral level which should be combined with exchanges at the peer level, such as bilateral political consultations, which Belgium has done and will continue to pursue. 74. In response to a question on how to enhance the use of human rights indicators, Mr. Gopaul stated that it was necessary to first identify the indicators that could be extracted from the United Nations human rights conventions to which the country is a party. He reiterated that if an indicator was to be used for comparison purposes, it was important not to use absolute values, but rather percentages. He fully agreed with the comments made about the importance of commitment by States to achieve meaningful results and of involving civil society in all processes. Finally, Mr. Gopaul expressed support for the idea of having a common mechanism for the realization of human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals. 75. Mr. Kothari, responding to a question on what forms technical cooperation may take, stated that the exchange of good practices among States in relation to follow-up should be encouraged, similar to what civil society organizations have done. States could also follow up bilaterally with another State on the recommendations it has received, as has already been done by some States. Another form of cooperation could consist in providing support to the development of disaggregated data and indicators, with the involvement of national human rights institutions, civil society organizations and academics. Mr. Kothari also stressed that Sustainable Development Goals and human rights commitments were mutually reinforcing and mentioned civil society networks in India and Nepal that have sought to merge the two agendas. He highlighted the importance of universal periodic review midterm reports and encouraged more States to adopt this practice as it would help to track the implementation of recommendations. He flagged the need to establish a national mechanism for reporting and follow-up coupled with a national implementation plan. Finally, Mr. Kothari stated that States should not engage in the universal periodic review in a piecemeal manner to satisfy the international community, but should think in terms of broader national policy objectives. 76. Finally, the moderator thanked the panellists for their useful interventions that have contributed to demystifying the issue at hand. She thanked Brazil and Paraguay, the main sponsors of Human Rights Council resolution 30/25, for bringing this dialogue before the Council. She echoed the high appreciation of sharing experiences and reiterated the message that there is no “one size fits all” solution when engaging with national follow-up systems and processes, and what was important was the political will to engage in concrete implementation of recommendations. She stated that, while the leaflet prepared by OHCHR was not an absolute way to proceed, it reflected the Office’s efforts to create a “one-stop shop” of ideas and tools on follow-up available to States. To conclude, the moderator noted that States have always been and will remain in the driving seat on how to engage with human rights mechanisms on follow-up to their recommendations. 14