A/HRC/35/20 development of good practices. Special support to the least developed countries and small island developing States through a special trust fund managed by OHCHR has increased engagement with the Human Rights Council and the international human rights system in general. 69. The universal periodic review has proved to be a pivotal development in facilitating and encouraging demand for sound technical cooperation in the field of human rights. This mechanism and its outcome reports have also served to increase the interest in technical support from other parts of the United Nations system. A general expansion of the international human rights system, including the entry into force of a number of new human rights treaties and special procedure mandates, has also contributed to an increase in demand for technical cooperation over these ten years. This expansion, particularly in the number of treaty bodies, has required additional OHCHR efforts to support States’ capacity to engage with the human rights mechanisms, such as the OHCHR treaty body capacitybuilding programme described in the present report. 70. This review of the last ten years of technical cooperation has underlined the need for human rights cooperation to take a systemic approach, assessing with national counterparts the broader institutional and normative context and challenges before designing and proposing the required support and the desired course of action. 71. The technical cooperation that OHCHR is best placed to offer should not be seen as an isolated activity but rather as part of an integrated multi-dimensional human rights strategy in line with the High Commissioner’s comprehensive and global mandate, with its value added and comparative and collaborative advantages. Also, technical cooperation alone is seldom effective unless coupled with strengthened accountability mechanisms. As the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights has explained, “sound and efficient technical cooperation and capacity-building programmes require to be based in solid understanding and analysis of the situation and the existing multifaceted challenges, which can only be achieved through independent and credible monitoring activities”. 22 According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, “the information and analysis that result from OHCHR’s monitoring activities constitute an important basis for identifying capacity-building needs and opportunities for technical cooperation”.23 72. Technical cooperation has proved to be a natural entry point for the United Nations to engage directly with national and local authorities, national human rights institutions and civil society, to better understand and remedy the challenges that they are facing in their daily work. Such joint cooperation often builds trust, which is essential in addressing not only knowledge and capacity gaps but also commitment gaps, through monitoring, advocacy and advice. Furthermore, the present review indicates that OHCHR can also contribute to building increased trust — a necessary condition for effective cooperation — between authorities and the civil society human rights community. Regarding the latter community, a specific effort has been made to reach out to marginalized and vulnerable groups, who are often unaware of their rights and have limited access to local authorities. 73. Such comprehensive engagement with national and local authorities and their realities requires stable and long-term mandates for the OHCHR field presences, as well as secure funding projections, in order to avoid short and unsustainable interventions that lack the proper follow-up. Many of the most effective OHCHR technical cooperation activities span five to ten years or more and owe their success to a step-by-step methodology that benefits from the trust developed with national counterparts. 74. This review has shown that there is room for effective replication of technical cooperation success stories — not exclusively by OHCHR or the United Nations system. 22 23 From the opening statement delivered by Flavia Pansieri at “Twenty years after the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights: an assessment”, in Bonn, Germany, on 9 November 2013. From the statement delivered by Navi Pillay to the Human Rights Council at its twenty-sixth session, on 25 June 2014, for the opening of the panel discussion on technical cooperation and capacitybuilding in advancing the rights of persons with disabilities through legal and institutional frameworks, including public-private partnerships. 15