A/HRC/35/20 2. Strategic litigation and the Maya Programme in Guatemala 41. The Maya Programme was established in 2009 to empower indigenous Mayan, Xinca and Garifuna peoples, communities and organizations to achieve stronger negotiating power and participation in public life. It is implemented by OHCHR, UNDP and UNICEF and is overseen by a steering committee comprising representatives of the Secretariat of Planning and Programming of the Presidency, OHCHR, UNDP and UNICEF. In the first phase of the programme, from 2009 to 2013, 18 indigenous organizations filed cases before administrative or judicial bodies on various issues, including rights relating to land, territory and natural resources, discrimination, access to justice, consultation, selfdetermined development and cultural rights. Five cases received favourable rulings, and three, for which national remedies had been exhausted, were submitted to the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights. 42. OHCHR interventions, in collaboration with indigenous peoples’ organizations, have led to positive outcomes, such as the establishment of a support network for organizations working on indigenous rights, and an increased use of national and regional protection systems by those organizations. The Maya Programme has also built up the capacity of judicial officials and has promoted changes in the legal and political culture of judges as duty bearers, so that they hand down rulings in accordance with international law. A second phase of the project was initiated in 2014. 3. Achieving results through broad participation in the Republic of Moldova 43. The efforts by OHCHR to ensure a broad participation of stakeholders in its technical cooperation projects were acknowledged in, for example, the external evaluation of the OHCHR project entitled “Combating discrimination in the Republic of Moldova, including in the Transnistrian region” (2014-2015).11 In the Republic of Moldova, OHCHR decided to implement an anti-discrimination project by engaging one disability organization, one Roma NGO and one organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons. Also, a Roma person was hired to work with so-called “Roma community mediators”. These implementing partners were selected among organizations/individuals forming part of, or already working with, the target communities — in this case minority groups who were victims of discrimination. The participation of these beneficiaries in the project was an important strategy in creating networks of victims. With the continued support of OHCHR, these networks managed to establish themselves as officially registered NGOs and associations, which ensured a high degree of sustainability for the project activities.12 4. Involving civil society in technical cooperation with State stakeholders 44. In Mexico, the Law for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, of 2012, provides for a national mechanism to address threats to human rights defenders and journalists. The law was drafted with the participation of civil society actors and Congress and was supported by international NGOs and OHCHR Mexico. The participation of OHCHR in joint Government-civil society projects can sometimes facilitate the process and improve the outcome. OHCHR can provide access to comparative experiences from other countries and can sometimes increase the level of trust between the parties involved in the project. 45. In Colombia, over a period of five years (2005-2009), OHCHR, UNDP and the diplomatic community, as recognized neutral parties, facilitated effectively a productive, multi-stakeholder dialogue and increased the attention to United Nations human rights recommendations in Colombia, which resulted in concrete policy action, including a government directive to combat extrajudicial executions. The well-documented process 11 12 “External evaluation of the OHCHR project ‘Combating discrimination in the Republic of Moldova, including in the Transnistrian region (2014-2015)’ “, section on good practices, December 2015, available from www.ohchr.org/Documents/AboutUs/Evaluation/CombatingDiscriminationRepMoldova.pdf. Ibid., evaluation question No. 7. 9