A/HRC/12/47 page 8 VI. WORKING METHODS A. Strengthening the effectiveness of the special procedures: a joint report on communications 24. Participants were briefed by the Secretariat on the steps taken so far to produce a joint report on communications. Following the discussion on a common report at the fifteenth annual meeting collated on a country-by-country basis, the Secretariat had examined the technical and substantive issues that such a report would entail. Provided the upgrading of the thematic database was completed by September 2009, the first joint communications report could be submitted in September 2010. 25. It was agreed that such a report would harmonize the working methods of mandate holders reporting on the same communications to the Human Rights Council; avoid unnecessary duplication of work; reduce some mandate holders’ and staff workload or free up time for work on other substantive issues; streamline documents; permit the examination and an assessment of cross-cutting human rights issues; and ensure that the content of communications and any follow-up given to them would feed into the UPR process more effectively. 26. Mandate holders decided to produce a joint communications report, under the guidelines suggested by the Secretariat. B. The universal periodic review mechanism and the special procedures 27. The Secretariat briefed participants on UPR and its relevance to the special procedures. The third, fourth and fifth sessions of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review had been held over the last year with 16 countries reviewed at each session. Special procedures’ recommendations and other information had been included in the compilation reports prepared by OHCHR. Several were referred to by States during the interactive dialogue with the States under review. A number of recommendations were included in the reports of the sessions and expressly accepted by the States under review. 28. It was noted that UPR had given more visibility to special procedures and provided an additional channel for a number of special procedures’ recommendations to be raised in the Council. The interactive dialogue and recommendations made by States might, inter alia, rely on issues raised by special procedures. 29. An added value of the UPR sessions for special procedures was the commitment of States to increased cooperation with special procedures, inter alia the extending of country visit invitations, standing invitations to special procedures mandate holders and the implementation of specific recommendations. Such commitment had been observed to varying degrees. In addition, the wealth of information contained in the country-related UPR documents prepared prior to the sessions could also be used by special procedures to inform themselves about the findings of other United Nations human rights mechanisms as well as NGOs and United Nations organizations. It was suggested that those documents could guide special procedures when engaging with countries, and that UPR final reports could serve as a tool for mandate holders to reinforce specific recommendations. Mandate holders were encouraged to consider the UPR calendar in scheduling visits to countries, consult UPR documents prior to their missions and use