A/HRC/16/20 35. We continued to promote cooperation and coordination within the United Nations system and between the three mandates devoted to indigenous issues. In support of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, OHCHR organized a workshop and other activities to facilitate the preparation of its study on indigenous peoples and the right to participate in decision-making. 36. Support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples continues to widen, with the recent endorsement by Canada and New Zealand. OHCHR organized activities aimed at enhancing the implementation of this key instrument, including a regional consultation held in December in Auckland on “The operationalization of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by national human rights institutions”. This contributed to the elaboration of a practical manual for NHRIs on how to use the Declaration. 37. OHCHR also continued to offer a Fellowship Programme for minority and indigenous human rights defenders. 3. Gender equality and women’s human rights 38. My Office prepared a report to the Human Rights Council on discrimination against women (A/HRC/15/40), which informed the discussion leading to the adoption of a resolution by the Council at its fifteenth session establishing a special mechanism in the form of a Working Group on discrimination against women in law and in practice. 39. My report on “Preventable maternal mortality and morbidity and human rights” (A/HRC/14/39) demonstrated how a human rights-based approach is necessary to achieve the MDGs, including the goal on maternal health. Since then, the Council has requested OHCHR to prepare a second report on effective human rights-based practices in this area. 40. In August 2010, I convened a high-level panel6 to hear directly from and engage in a dialogue with victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo regarding their needs and their perceptions of remedies and reparations available to them. The panel was also to make recommendations as to additional mechanisms that might be established, particularly to provide access to remedies for victims whose perpetrators are not known and whose claims therefore cannot be pursued through the formal justice system. From 30 September to 10 October, the panel travelled in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and met in closed session individually or in groups with 61 victims ranging from 3 to 61 years of age, including four male victims. 41. In November 2010, coinciding with the International Day to Eliminate Violence against Women,7 OHCHR organized an expert workshop on the elimination of violence bringing together experts from different regions of the world to identify challenges, good practices and opportunities.8 6 7 8 The Panel was chaired by the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, and comprised of Elisabeth Rehn, former Minister of Defence of Finland and currently Chair of the Board of Directors of the International Criminal Court Trust Fund for Victims, and Dr. Denis Mukwege, Medical Director of Panzi Hospital in Bukavu (South Kivu), Democratic Republic of the Congo. Pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 11/2 A summary report will be presented to the Council at its seventeenth session and the findings of the workshop will also feed into the OHCHR report on good practices in preventing violence against women to be presented to the Council at that same session. 9