A/HRC/28/63
cases (see document A/HRC/22/47). The Special Rapporteur intends to make accredited
national institutions privileged partners in following up recommendations in general but
also in specific cases, as required.
94.
Follow-up to country visits will also be an important element of the Special
Rapporteur’s activities. He intends, where possible, to increase the number of short visits
that he makes in order to ask State authorities about follow-up to recommendations and
urgent appeals.
95.
The procedure will be that discussion panels will be set up with the stakeholders of
the country concerned to address the situation in that country and identify the best way of
ensuring more effective follow-up to recommendations. When such a discussion panel is
arranged, the country authorities will be officially informed through their permanent
mission and the Special Rapporteur will request the government to hold bilateral
discussions, which will make it possible to gain a better understanding of the status of
implementation of recommendations.
96.
The Special Rapporteur will take the opportunity to offer technical assistance, based
on best observed practices, in order to provide the government with the appropriate tools to
implement recommendations more effectively.
G.
Wider dissemination of good practices
97.
The effective protection of human rights defenders and the follow-up of specific
cases will be one of the main features of the Special Rapporteur’s activities, whether
through communications or urgent appeals, country visits or short follow-up visits.
98.
At the same time, the Special Rapporteur is well aware of the link between
protection activities and promotion activities. He has been struck, during regional
consultations, by the extraordinary vitality of human rights defenders, specialized NGOs
and networks of defenders, who, over the 16 years since the adoption of the Declaration on
Human Rights Defenders, have been able to develop and improve the mechanisms of
protection, international solidarity and rapid reaction in the face of threats and attacks by,
for example, using state-of-the-art technologies and social networks.
99.
Some States and groups of countries have developed their own tools, guidelines,
national legislation and visa or relocation mechanisms to prevent violations of the rights of
human rights defenders more effectively and to protect those who need protection.
100. Seminars, round tables, forums and other forms of consultation have been organized
on every continent to train human rights defenders, to teach them protection techniques and
to protect their means of communication against surveillance risks. Such meetings provide
an opportunity for exchanges of good practice and the Special Rapporteur will, where
possible, respond positively to invitations made to him to participate in such meetings.
101. Lastly, the Special Rapporteur intends to join others in drafting a guide to good
practices and to put every effort into the dissemination of good practices, which, when they
are widely disseminated, so as to reach even the most isolated human rights defenders, can
have a multiplier effect in protecting and promoting the right to defend human rights.
H.
Greater visibility for the issue of human rights defenders
102. During the first regional consultations, the human rights defenders expressed the
importance of visibility for their situation and their role. They said they wished to see
greater prominence given to positive stories about their work, their successes, the problems
GE.14-25280
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