A/HRC/38/18 50. In terms of proactive outreach and increasing accessibility, some treaty bodies had begun to hold meeting in decentralized locations. The Department of Economic and Social Affairs promoted the participation of youth organizations, with or without consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, at the Council’s annual Youth Forum. UNFPA played an important role in creating and strengthening the Youth Leadership Working Group, which advocated for issues related to young people at the International Conference on Population and Development. The Peacebuilding Support Office, for instance, had created the Working Group on Youth and Peacebuilding to promote the participation of young people in peacebuilding operations. Some organizations had gone a step further in expanding their constituencies, for example, to include faith-based NGOs, while FAO had included social movements. 51. Contributors reported that the increasing presence of government-organized NGOs had distorted and diluted the voice of civil society, thereby limiting the actual space for the distinct contribution of groups not connected to Governments. 41 States had reportedly used them to occupy some of the limited space allocated to civil society, for example by having them submit shadow reports with increasing regularity and crowding out other civil society actors, including by granting them Economic and Social Council accreditation. Certain civil society organizations were said to play an active role in limiting the space for others. I. Promoting and funding civil society engagement 52. In paragraph 14 (e) of its resolution 32/31, the Human Rights Council requested States to provide a long-term supportive environment for civil society, including through education, to strengthen respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. Some organizations sought to strengthen civil society engagement through capacity development, knowledge-sharing and the development of tools and skills. The United Nations Institute for Training and Research frequently supported the promotion and protection of civil society space through training, education and capacity development, including through an online course on human rights and the environment. The Office for Disarmament Affairs had established programmes and produced publications to assist civil society organizations in engaging with Member States on disarmament issues, including through a dedicated initiative on civil society and disarmament. 53. Information technology offered cost-effective avenues for information-sharing. Examples included: the ITU stocktaking process on the World Summit on the Information Society, a global register of activities by stakeholders to foster the promotion of civil society in information and communication technology; an NGO marketplace project set up by the UNODC Vienna NGO Committee on Drugs, an independent online platform for all stakeholders; the Aarhus Convention directives on the use of technology to promote participation; the development of the annual UN-Habitat partner survey; the “partner portal”, a transparent vetting system across United Nations agencies; and a shared database created by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Food Programme and UNICEF. 54. Regional organizations, such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, assisted civil society organizations through programmatic support, offering guidelines and handbooks, enhanced dialogues, workshops and meetings at the national and regional levels, to expand their knowledge and competencies. The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights sought to engage with a wide array of diverse stakeholders from the local to the international levels. At the national level, some national human rights institutions, such as the Commission nationale consultative des droits de l’homme of France provided assistance to civil society organizations on engaging with regional and international human rights bodies. 55. Funding for the participation of civil society organizations in regional and international platforms was a good practice that supported the participation of less 41 14 Human Rights in China, International Justice Resource Center, Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain.