A/HRC/4/43 page 22 to all special procedures. We hope that the remaining States Members of the Council will consider doing so. We strongly urge that all those countries that have failed altogether to respond to requests for visits, including those which have extended standing invitations, should do so as a matter of priority. We urge that political commitment now be transformed into substantive action. For our part, we have collectively and individually resolved to take up the challenge of ensuring that the work of the special procedures is even more effective and that values of human rights reach every corner of the world. In this context, we strongly urge the Council to play its lead role and provide the maximum space for all human rights mechanisms to flourish in an enabling system. We welcome the General Assembly resolution 60/251 on the Human Rights Council, which called for the maintenance of a system of special procedures and we wish to be actively involved with the process of review, called for by the resolution, that will take place this year. This should lead, inter alia, to the strengthening of the Special Procedures system and to a greater synergy between the latter and the rest of the United Nations system for the protection of human rights. Any review should start with a full conceptualization of what role the special procedures should play as independent experts advising and supporting the new Human Rights Council, above all in the universal periodic review, to “address situations of violations of human rights, including gross and systematic violations, and make recommendations thereon” and to “respond promptly to human rights emergencies” (General Assembly resolution 60/251, paras. 3 and 5 (f)). Only then should a review of the present mandates be undertaken, which could cover some of the following issues: selection process designed to ensure independence of action, complementarity and gaps, capacity to fulfil the mandate and related resources, enhancement of follow-up mechanisms and emerging new issues in human rights. Through consultations over the past year both at our annual meeting and during the informal consultations held in Geneva in October 2005 we have committed ourselves to enhance and strengthen our methods of work in order to carry out our mandates in the most effective way. We are committed to continue enhancing our working methods in an open and transparent manner. We have two concrete examples illustrating this commitment: we established a Coordination Committee of special procedures last year at our annual meeting, and we updated the Manual on our working methods. We will post the current draft on the Internet and invite comments from all our partners before its finalization and adoption. Both these initiatives can facilitate the involvement and active participation of special procedures in defining the designs for their reinforcement and in the process of review of mandates that follows, as well as in the universal periodic review. At this moment of change, challenges and hope within the international human rights community, we call upon the Council to recognize the essential role of the special procedures in strengthening human rights protection by taking the following steps: