A/HRC/38/18 sustainable development, the provision of access to justice for all and building of effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels (target 16.6), and for ensuring responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels (target 16.7). 5. The present report is based on 82 written submissions received by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) following its requests for inputs sent on 31 November 2016 to Member States, national human rights institutions, civil society organizations and international and regional organizations. II. How civil society contributes to the work of regional and international organizations 6. The contribution of civil society to the work of the United Nations was recognized right from the preamble of the Charter of the United Nations. In article 71, the Charter established that the Economic and Social Council should work to support civil society participation within the United Nations system. The rules and procedures of other regional and international multilateral organizations drew on the Charter in relation to civil society engagement. Other entities had developed specific procedures and arrangements for civil society engagement — generally conditioned on the assumption that their aims were compatible with the purpose and mandate of the international or regional entity. 7. Civil society organizations brought local and national concerns to the attention of the international community and advocate for change, thus connecting the international stage with local levels. Civil society had been instrumental in raising awareness of women’s rights and gender equality at the regional and international levels, and in empowering and giving voice to those in the most severe situations of marginalization and vulnerability. It had also contributed to challenging social norms and the organizational culture of regional and international organizations. 8. Several multilateral institutions had highlighted the key contribution that civil society makes to their work, including: (a) by encouraging people-led processes in the “localization” of the Sustainable Development Goals, in the case of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat); (b) by building information and knowledge communities, in the case of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU); (c) by creating partnerships around complex societal issues, in the case of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC); and (d) by influencing non-State actors, in the case of the World Health Organization (WHO). A. Advocacy and awareness-raising 9. International institutions attached great importance to the advocacy efforts of civil society partners that gave a voice to those most exposed to human rights violations. For instance, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) referred to the critical role of civil society in relation to hunger and extreme poverty in complex humanitarian disasters. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) stressed that civil society played a crucial role in responding to global health issues like AIDS. The Department of Economic and Social Affairs recalled that civil society organizations contributed to strengthening the participation of the most underrepresented and excluded from decision-making, and considered the advocacy efforts and contributions by major groups and other stakeholders to be central to the transformative nature of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs highlighted the ability of civil society to mobilize victims and raise awareness on the issues affecting them, often by forming civil society networks for collective advocacy. According to the Peacebuilding Support Office, civil society had played a critical advocacy role in the adoption of Security Council resolution 2250 (2015), including as key partners in mobilizing young people. According to the organization Task Team CSO Development, civil society organizations also raised awareness at the country level by advocating for concrete actions to implement global-level commitments. 4