A/HRC/14/24 volumes should be discontinued and an integrated, publicly available, searchable and constantly updated database should be put online. Data management and statistical analysis experts should be consulted to design a database which is more readily able to be integrated with other directly relevant databases within and outside the United Nations system. 14. Communications should be publicly available online within a fixed period, which could be set at three months after the deadline for a Governmental response. At present, communications remain confidential until published in the annual report, a procedure which might involve a delay of as little as two months or one closer to two years, depending entirely on the fortuitous timing of the report and the communication. 15. A fourth step involves revisiting the rules that require the submission of the original complaint by those affected or those claiming to have direct or reliable knowledge of the violation. This rule is often interpreted as being the flip side of the rule that complaints may not be based entirely on media reports or even reports from non-governmental organizations, unless they are specifically submitted to the Special Rapporteur. These rules were designed for another age, well before the communications revolution of the late twentieth century. Their entirely legitimate objective is to deter false reports and to emphasize that the credibility of sources must be a key consideration. But today’s reality is that those affected might have no access to the United Nations, let alone to Special Procedures, those with reliable knowledge such as national or international NGOs might not bother sending a complaint to the United Nations when their information is rapidly made available online, and the “mass media” is no longer the limited group that it once was but is now a much more diffuse and heterogeneous concept. 16. A fifth step is to pay more attention to the ways in which the information generated by the various communications systems is used. In general, most of it remains very poorly integrated into the broader United Nations human rights system. Means could easily be devised to enhance its relevance to thematic or country specific debates, to the work of the treaty bodies, to efforts to integrate human rights information into mainstreaming activities and into the universal periodic review process. 17. A sixth and final step (these steps can be taken more or less simultaneously) is to respond when countries have consistently poor levels of cooperation or meaningful engagement with a Special Rapporteur’s communications process. Those that fail to respond year after year should surely be asked why this is so by the Council. To do otherwise indicates that the communications procedure, despite its significant cost, is not being taken seriously as a means of responding to alleged violations. B. Country fact-finding visits 18. During the six years that I have held this mandate, I have visited 14 countries. Since I last reported to the Council, three visits have taken place: Colombia from 8 to 18 June 2009 (A/HRC/14/24/Add.2), the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 5 to 15 October 2009 (A/HRC/14/24/Add.3), and Albania from 15 to 23 February 2010 (A/HRC/14/24/Add.9). Countries visited in prior years were: Nigeria (June-July 2005), Sri Lanka (November-December 2005), Guatemala (August 2006), Israel and Lebanon (September 2006, joint mission), the Philippines (February 2007), Brazil (November 2007), the Central African Republic (January-February 2008), the United States of America (June 5