A/HRC/33/27 Geneva took part in national fellowships with OHCHR country offices in Cambodia, Colombia and the United Republic of Tanzania. 36. OHCHR also organized a senior indigenous fellowship programme over the course of four months to provide on-the-job training. In 2015, the senior indigenous fellow came from Nepal and was involved in the facilitation of events and the preparation of analytical briefs, reports and speeches. She also participated in rigorous training on critical human rights issues and attended the sessions of the Human Rights Council and the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. She was able to raise awareness of indigenous peoples’ issues in Nepal and was a panellist at a side event held during the twenty-ninth session of the Council on the disproportionate amount of violence suffered by indigenous women and girls worldwide. The side event was sponsored by the Permanent Mission of the United States of America to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva. 37. During the reporting period, the OHCHR regional office for South America and the Ombudsman’s Office of Argentina organized capacity-building workshops on international standards and mechanisms for indigenous peoples’ leaders in the Provinces of Salta and Jujuy. 38. In addition, 2015 marked the thirtieth anniversary of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples. A series of activities took place on that occasion, including an exhibition during the thirtieth session of the Human Rights Council and the launch of a video3 showing how instrumental the Fund has been over the years in strengthening the participation of indigenous peoples in decision-making processes at the United Nations, thus contributing to advance the rights of indigenous peoples at the international level. 39. Over the past year, the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples continued to support the participation of indigenous peoples’ organizations and communities in the sessions of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Human Rights Council and its universal periodic review mechanism, as well as the treaty bodies. 40. In 2015, 98 indigenous peoples’ representatives were able to participate in the fourteenth session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the eighth session of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as well as in the sessions of the Human Rights Council, the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, the Human Rights Committee, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Committee against Torture and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. 41. So far in 2016, 56 indigenous representatives were selected to attend the fifteenth session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the ninth session of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as well as in sessions of the Human Rights Council, the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Human Rights Committee, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Committee on the Rights of the Child held from January to June. 42. In view of the ever-growing demand for participation in meetings of the human rights mechanisms and considering the positive impact that such participation has in terms of the number of references made to indigenous peoples in international jurisprudence, the 3 8 Available at https://vimeo.com/38094562.