A/HRC/35/27 28. In view of her strategic and thematic priorities, the Special Rapporteur has also begun to significantly strengthen cooperation and institutional relationships with the United Nations Development Programme, the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), among others. In addition to conducting bilateral meetings with these entities, she is investigating practical measures for them to institutionalize their cooperation with the mandate, including through the establishment of focal points in such organizations relating to specific areas of collaboration. Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur will expand her collaboration with national human rights institutions, with a view to identifying positive practices in their work relating to internally displaced persons (see section IV. D. below). 29. Collaboration with civil society organizations, at the international and national levels, has been instrumental in the work of this mandate and the Special Rapporteur will continue and enhance her engagement with civil society organizations working on protection of internally displaced persons. Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur will put particular emphasis on consultations with internally displaced persons and displacementaffected communities and, where they exist, with internally displaced persons’ organizations or associations, which remain key counterparts for the mandate in order to ensure that their voices and perspectives are better reflected in all relevant forums. She will seek to increase the presence and role of internally displaced persons, including women, in national, regional and international forums to ensure that their unique experiences and perspectives come to the fore. B. Strategic priorities and initial activities 30. Since taking up her duties on 1 November 2016, the Special Rapporteur has undertaken a series of bilateral consultations with key stakeholders in order to shape her strategic priorities. This process of consultation culminated on 25 January 2017 with a stakeholder meeting in Geneva for the Special Rapporteur to present and receive feedback on her initial strategic priorities and on the main thematic priorities for her work over the next three years. She was honoured to have her predecessors, Chaloka Beyani and Walter Kälin, on the panel, and attendance by over 35 participants from Member States, United Nations agencies and civil society, who provided their perspectives, views and recommendations. Following the event, on 21 February 2017, the Special Rapporteur had occasion to present her strategic and thematic priorities to a broader, online audience of close to 300 persons worldwide through a web course hosted by Professionals in Humanitarian Action and Protection.7 31. Enhanced international attention has been given to large movements of refugees and migrants, including in the context of the United Nations Summit for Refugees and Migrants, held in New York on 19 September 2016, and of subsequent processes under way to adopt global compacts on safe, orderly and regular migration and on refugees by September 2018. The Special Rapporteur urges the international community to ensure that it maintains much-needed attention on the situation of internally displaced persons, recognizing that many who have crossed international borders as refugees or undocumented or trafficked migrants have initially been internally displaced in their own countries and have not been provided with the necessary protection and support allowing them to remain in their own countries if they so wish. 8 32. While internally displaced persons have the right to cross international borders and the right to seek asylum in other countries, both of which must be guaranteed, responding to their protection and assistance needs within their countries, supporting durable solutions for them and addressing the overall root causes of their displacement remains fundamental. 7 8 See https://phap.org/civicrm/event/info?id=393. Following the summit, the former Special Rapporteur joined a number of United Nations and nongovernmental organizations in writing an open letter to Member States urging them to do more to support internally displaced persons and the communities that host them. 9