to independent human rights experts or groups of such experts, known as special rapporteurs, independent experts or working groups. They report and advise on thematic or country-specific human rights situations. As at July 2017, there were 44 thematic and 13 country-specific mandates. The President of the UNHRC appoints special procedure mandate-holders who serve in their personal capacity and do not receive financial remuneration for their work. Their independent status is intended to safeguard their impartiality. Special procedures can undertake country missions, issue ‘communications’, including urgent appeals to governments, call public attention to specific violations and elaborate on human rights norms. They are mandated to submit periodic reports to the UNHRC and, in some cases, to the UNGA. The special procedures system is a unique mechanism that can draw high-level public attention to specific issues, prompt governments to re-examine and correct actions, and give a voice to victims. Although their reports and recommendations are not legally binding per se, they do carry weight as authoritative interpretations of international law. Over the years, special procedures have played a critical role in shaping the content of international human rights norms, shedding light on how states comply with such norms and advancing measures to improve respect for them.8 The legal framework for their work is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), all major human rights treaties, and various resolutions, decisions and declarations adopted by UN bodies. While their specific mandate is contained in the resolution that establishes each of them in general, country mandates must focus on the country concerned, while thematic mandates monitor any UN member state’s human rights compliance. While resource mobilisation for human rights realisation is a cross-cutting issue for all human rights monitoring bodies, some special procedures have paid more attention than others to the issue of resource mobilisation. This is particularly the case among thematic mandates with a strong focus on economic, social and cultural rights, such as (in alphabetical order): • the Special Rapporteur on the right to food (‘Special Rapporteur on food’); • the Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights (the ‘Independent Expert on foreign debt’); • the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (the ‘Special Rapporteur on health’); • the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context (the ‘Special Rapporteur on housing’); 8 Ted Piccone, Catalysts for Change: How the U.N.’s Independent Experts Promote Human Rights (July 2012), available at www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/catalystsforchange_chapter.pdf accessed 20 October 2017. 22 The Obligation to Mobilise Resources: Bridging Human Rights, Sustainable Development Goals, and Economic and Fiscal Policies   December 2017