A/HRC/2/2 A/HRC/Sub.1/58/36 page 97 74. The Sub-Commission has had an invaluable partnership with NGOs in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council. In intergovernmental bodies, where such NGOs participate, they emphasize the presentation of information about particular issues or situations. In the Sub-Commission, NGOs have joined with its members in awareness-raising exercises aimed at the development of understanding, insights, policies, norms and strategies and the mobilization of conscience. There is no other United Nations human rights body where such in-depth joint brainstorming on human rights takes place. 75. The Sub-Commission’s Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery has unearthed practices and policies the world over that called for remedial action. No other body has made such a sustained contribution in that area of human rights. Its highlighting of the plight of large numbers of human beings living and working in conditions tantamount to slavery has been of major importance for the promotion and protection of their rights. 76. The Sub-Commission’s Working Group on Indigenous Populations, building on a historic global study on the issue by its Special Rapporteur, brought indigenous peoples to the United Nations for the first time in large numbers, and continues to do so. The Sub-Commission’s patient and persistent efforts to draft international standards on the promotion and protection of the human rights of indigenous peoples finally resulted in the adoption of the United Nations Declaration. The deliberate human rights focus of the work of the Sub-Commission and its Working Group, through its studies, deliberations and hearings in this area, is unmatched by any other United Nations body. 77. The Sub-Commission’s continuing work, in plenary and through its Working Group on Minorities, on the protection of minority rights has sought to buttress international and regional norms on this topic. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities was built on the study by and normative inputs of the Sub-Commission. 78. The Sub-Commission’s Social Forum has been another pivotal forum for alerting the international community to problems affecting the realization of the human rights of those living in poverty and for the promotion of dignity and basic economic, social and cultural rights, as well as civil and political rights, for the poor. The Social Forum has helped bring human rights closer to the needs of the masses of the people. 79. The feature that distinguishes the Sub-Commission from any other human rights body in the United Nations system is its assembling of the shared insights and expertise of experts and practitioners from all parts of the world. The Sub-Commission has not been without its imperfections, but throughout its history it has been distinguished by its capacity for detached, expert examination of issues, in partnership with civil society, and its contribution of insights and proposals for further deliberation and decision in intergovernmental bodies.