A/HRC/26/41 I. Introduction 1. In its resolution 13/23 on enhancement of international cooperation in the field of human rights, the Human Rights Council requested the Human Rights Advisory Committee to explore ways and means to enhance international cooperation in the field of human rights, taking into account the views of States and other relevant stakeholders, and to submit proposals in that regard to the Council at its nineteenth session. In order to give effect to that mandate, the Advisory Committee, pursuant to its recommendation 5/4, established a drafting group chaired by Dheerujlall Seetulsingh. Emmanuel Decaux was appointed the first Rapporteur of the drafting group. Upon his resignation from the Committee, he was replaced by Laurence Boisson de Chazournes. Following its consideration at its sixth session of a working paper on the subject of the mandate submitted to it by the drafting group, the Committee considered a progress report on the same subject at its seventh session and submitted that report to the Council at the Council’s sixteenth session. At that session, the Committee also prepared and distributed a questionnaire to seek further views from States and relevant stakeholders. Following its analysis of the relevant texts and the responses received to its questionnaires, the Committee submitted its final report to the Human Rights Council at its nineteenth session (A/HRC/19/74). 2. A multi-stakeholder seminar on the enhancement of international cooperation in the field of human rights was organized by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on 15 February 2013. The seminar discussed, among other things, the final report of the Advisory Committee. Pursuant to Council resolution 19/33, a report on the seminar was submitted to the Council at its twenty-third session (A/HRC/23/20). 3. At its twenty-third session, in resolution 23/3, the Council requested the Advisory Committee to prepare, in consultation with States, a more focused and in-depth study on the ways and means to enhance international cooperation in the field of human rights, including, but not limited to, the identification of areas where further progress could be made, taking into account responses received as a result of further consultations with States, and to submit a progress report to the Council at its twenty-sixth session. 4. In order to give effect to resolution 23/3, the Advisory Committee, pursuant to its recommendation 11/2, set up a drafting group at its eleventh session consisting of Saeed Mohamed Al Faihani, Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, Mario Luis Coriolano, Latif Hüseynov, Alfred Ntunduguru Karokora, Obiora Chinedu Okafor (Rapporteur), Katharina Pabel and Dheerujlall Seetulsingh (Chair), as well as Shigeki Sakamoto, whose term ended on 30 September 2013. Subsequently, Mikhail Lebedev and Jean Ziegler also joined the drafting group. The Committee tasked the drafting group with the preparation of a draft progress report to guide the in-depth discussion to be held at its twelfth session, in February 2014. The drafting group also held preliminary discussions on the mandate during that session and, after receiving approval from the Advisory Committee as a whole, prepared a questionnaire that was then circulated to States. The Rapporteur of the drafting group subsequently prepared a draft report, which was considered and endorsed by the drafting group in the period between the eleventh and twelfth sessions of the Committee.1 That draft formed the basis for the present progress report. 1 The members of the drafting group are grateful to Aaron Stone and Basil Ugochukwu of the Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Canada, for their important input during the drafting of the present report. 3