A/HRC/24/45 Group met with Under-Secretary-General of the Department of Safety and Security, Gregory Starr, to discuss the development of policies regarding the use of armed private security companies by United Nations organs and agencies. At the end of the session, the Working Group decided to send comments on the drafts of the United Nations Security Policy Manual on Armed Private Security Companies (Policy Manual) and the Security Management Operations Manual and Guidelines on the Use of Armed Services from Private Security Companies (Operations Manual). 7. The seventeenth session of the Working Group took place in Geneva from 17 to 19 December 2012. During this session, the Working Group held a press conference on its visit to Somalia from 8 to 14 December 2012, as well as consultations with representatives of Member States and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Furthermore, in order to comply with Human Rights Council resolution 21/8, which requested the Working Group to establish a database of convicted mercenaries, the Working Group decided to send a note verbale to Member States seeking information on cases of mercenaries convicted by national courts. 8. From 11 to 15 March 2013, the Working Group held its eighteenth session in Geneva, during which the Working Group consulted representatives of Member States, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and NGOs. During this session, the Working Group decided to launch a study on the use of PMSCs by the United Nations and report on this issue to the General Assembly in 2014. As part of this study, it also decided to hold an expert panel event on this topic during its next session in New York. Furthermore, the Working Group reviewed responses from Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, Germany, Ghana, Mauritius, Poland, Switzerland and Togo to its request for information relating to persons convicted of mercenary activities. B. Communications 9. Since its last report to the Human Rights Council, the Working Group has sent four communications to the Governments of Colombia, Honduras, Liberia and the United States of America, respectively. Summaries of the communications to Colombia, Honduras and Liberia were reported to the twenty-second session of the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/22/67) and a summary of the communication to the United States of America is included in the addendum to the present report. The Working Group expresses its appreciation to the Government of Colombia, which provided its reply, and invites the other Governments to do so as soon as possible. C. Country visits 10. The Working Group conducted two country visits during the period under review. It visited Somalia from 8 to 14 December 2012 and Honduras from 18 to 22 February 2013. The reports on the visits to Somalia and Honduras are presented as addendums to the present report. D. Comments on the policy and operations manuals on the use of armed services from private security companies 11. The Working Group has been following the development of the Policy Manual and the Operations Manual on the use of armed services from private security companies and 4