A/HRC/27/50 United Nations as armed guards, while the second panel addressed the use of PMSCs by the United Nations in peace operations. 7. The twentieth session of the Working Group was held in Geneva from 16 to 20 December 2013. During this session, the Working Group held consultations with representatives of Member States with a view to pursuing outstanding country visit requests. From 3 to 7 March 2014, the Working Group held its twenty-first session in Geneva. During this session, the Working Group held discussions with representatives from civil society on the importance of an international binding instrument to regulate the activities of PMSCs, including minimum standards of regulation, and on strategies to mobilize stakeholders in support of a legally binding instrument to enhance constructive engagement with States, international organizations and NGOs. The Working Group will further elaborate on the draft of a possible international convention on private military and security companies. 8. On 5 March 2014, the Working Group held a public event on the topic of use by the United Nations of PMSCs, which was opened by the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The participants discussed the recently adopted United Nations Policy and Guidelines on the use of armed guards and the challenges faced by the United Nations when outsourcing a number of security tasks to private contractors. Discussions highlighted the risks posed to United Nations operations, its staff and local populations. The need for the United Nations to ensure that PMSCs and the actions of their employees are in conformity with international standards was also emphasized. Participants made concrete proposals to address some of the challenges, such as putting in place a robust selection and vetting process when employing private security companies and ensuring that mechanisms are established to provide remedies for possible human rights violations. B. Communications 9. Since its last report to the Human Rights Council, the Working Group has sent six communications to the Governments of Australia, Honduras, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania and the United States of America, respectively.2 The Working Group expresses its appreciation to the Government of Honduras, which replied to one of the communications addressed to it, and invites the other Governments to do so as soon as possible. C. Country visits 10. The Working Group conducted one country visit during the period under review. It visited the Comoros from 7 to 16 May 2014. The report on the visit to the Comoros is presented as an addendum to the present report. The Working Group thanks the Government of Côte d’Ivoire for its positive response to its request for a visit, which it plans to undertake from 6 to10 October 2014. D. Collecting information on individuals convicted of mercenary activities 11. The Human Rights Council, in its resolution 21/8, requested the Working Group to establish a database of individuals convicted of mercenary activities (para. 18). Pursuant to that request, the Working Group sent a note verbale to all Member States on 22 January 2 4 Summaries of the communications will be included in the Communications report of Special Procedures to be submitted to the twenty-seventh session of the Human Rights Council.