We urge other governments also to issue such standing invitations. These consist of Special Rapporteurs, Special Representatives, Working Groups and Independent Experts who are charged with considering a specific human rights issue in relation to all countries in the world. As part of their work, the Special Procedures visit countries in order to examine at first hand the situation in relation to the issue in their mandate, and report to the Commission on these visits. In order to undertake a country visit, the individual thematic mechanism has to be invited by the State concerned. At present, the process is almost always initiated by the Special Procedures themselves approaching the State expressing the wish to visit and asking for the necessary invitation.
Some States respond promptly to such requests, some respond eventually and some fail to respond.
This also means that resources are used in soliciting invitations rather than on the implementation of the mandates. Since all the Special Procedures are established by resolution of the Commission on Human Rights in which all the Member States of the UN can participate and since country missions are part of the established methods, States should do their best to facilitate such visits. A simple and effective way of doing this, is for States to issue a Standing Invitation to visit their country to all the thematic Special Procedures of the Commission. A State could announce its decision to extend a Standing Invitation to the Special Procedures at the Commission on Human Rights. A simple statement to this effect, lodged with the High Commissioner, would be sufficient.