A/HRC/23/18 • Increased joint activities by national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations, such as capacity-building activities, the dissemination of the recommendations made by human rights mechanisms and monitoring, including facilitating the access of victims to United Nations and regional human rights mechanisms 58. To enhance joint activities on women’s rights, participants also proposed that United Nations and regional human rights mechanisms: • Define a common agenda to further protect women’s rights, on specific themes, for example access to justice, and looking into the causes of women’s human rights violations • Participate in the annual full-day discussions of the Human Rights Council on women’s human rights • Discuss ways and means to convey joint messages to the United Nations bodies working on women’s rights, for example the Commission on the Status of Women C. 1. Follow-up to recommendations by United Nations and regional human rights mechanisms Good practices and challenges 59. Participants discussed ways and means to improve follow-up to recommendations made by United Nations and regional human rights mechanisms based on the example of the bodies specialized in the rights of the child. Representatives of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Council of Europe, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, national human rights institutions and nongovernmental organizations participated in the discussion. 60. It was observed that the universal periodic review was a good source of information for United Nations and regional human rights mechanisms, since it made clear which recommendations States were willing to implement and the ones that they only noted. It was suggested that universal periodic review recommendations should be used as a followup instrument. Some also noted that national human rights plans of action provided an opportunity for greater cooperation if they reflected recommendations of international and regional human rights mechanisms. It was also proposed that United Nations and regional human rights mechanisms should form partnerships to provide technical cooperation to States for the implementation of their recommendations. 61. Partnerships between human rights mechanisms were also cited as a good practice, for instance, as a strategy in the area of the rights of the child developed by the Council of Europe, with the participation of the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency, UNICEF, OHCHR and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. This strategy was aimed at the implementation of standards on children´s rights, focusing on the protection of children from violence, child-friendly services and systems, the protection of children in vulnerable situations and child participation, using standards developed by United Nations and regional human rights mechanisms. 62. Linking the follow-up on recommendations to day-to-day activities was mentioned as a way to save resources. For example, non-governmental organizations used the recommendations of human rights mechanisms in their advocacy activities, including those aimed at harmonizing national legislation with international human rights standards. 15