A/HRC/13/69 as regional workshops in Mali (in cooperation with the International Organization of the Francophonie for 13 French-speaking West African countries) and Thailand (for the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand). A regional judicial colloquium was also organized in Thailand (for Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Thailand). 8. On 14 September 2009, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, in her statement to the Human Rights Council, inter alia, underscored the importance of the treaty bodies, both through their reporting and individual complaints mechanisms, as well as through the universal periodic review process. She highlighted that the overall success of the human rights protection system, marked by the increase in the number of human rights instruments and corresponding monitoring bodies, together with greater compliance by States parties with reporting obligations, posed greater demands on the treaty bodies and her Office. She stated that, while that success was most welcome and encouraging, States parties should accede to human rights treaties and other stakeholders to initiate a process of reflection on how to streamline and strengthen the treaty body system to achieve better coordination among these mechanisms and in their interaction with special procedures and the universal periodic review. The High Commissioner made a similar appeal before the General Assembly on 21 October 2009. 9. OHCHR organized with the Committee on the Rights of the Child, in cooperation with other partners, the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention of the Rights of the Child. For the anniversary, 700 delegates, including high-level dignitaries, children and young people (more than 60 States and 130 non-governmental organizations and academic institutions were represented) deliberated on three themes “Dignity, Development and Dialogue” in six workshops from 8 to 9 October 2009 and came up with recommendations, which were adopted by the Committee at its fifty-third session in January 2010. Furthermore, OHCHR organized a series of events with United Nations Development Fund for Women and the United Nations regional commissions at national and regional level (Bangkok, Banjul, Buenos Aires, Geneva and Istanbul) to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in the context of the 15-year review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. These celebrations culminated in a global event held on 3 December 2009 at United Nations Headquarters in New York attended by the Secretary-General, the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Chairperson of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. The event brought together speakers from around the world who shared examples of how the Convention has been used to implement women’s human rights and achieve gender equality in their countries, including though the application of the Optional Protocol to the Convention, which celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2009. Furthermore, OHCHR also organized a three-day expert workshop for members of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights from 28 to 30 October 2009 in order to support the Committee’s future work under the new Optional Protocol of the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The expert seminar entitled “Implementation of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: future role of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights” brought together various experts from several countries, including Argentina, Colombia, India and South Africa, that have sustained experience in adjudicating individual complaints in domestic courts in the field of economic, social and cultural rights. 10. From 29 November to 2 December 2010, the tenth Inter-Committee Meeting of the Human Rights Treaty Bodies was held in Geneva. Three representatives of each treaty body were invited. The Inter-Committee Meeting had on its agenda two particular issues: followup to concluding observations and decisions and the universal periodic review. The meeting mostly looked at how treaty bodies could strengthen, harmonize and develop their followup procedures under the reporting process, as well as under the individual communications process. Currently, four committees have formally established follow-up procedures: the 3