A/HRC/20/25 I. Introduction1 1. Following the extension of her mandate in June 2011 (see Human Rights Council resolution 17/13), the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Magdalena Sepúlveda, decided to dedicate the present report to following up the recommendations made in her country mission reports during the first three years of her mandate. 2. Since her appointment in 2008, the Special Rapporteur has focused her thematic work on, inter alia, the human rights approach to social protection programmes; the implications of the global financial and economic crises and subsequent recovery measures for people living in poverty; and the proliferation of laws, regulations and practices that penalize people living in poverty.2 3. The Special Rapporteur has conducted official visits to Ecuador, Zambia, Bangladesh, Viet Nam, Ireland, Timor-Leste and Paraguay. During her visits, she examined the situation of those most vulnerable to poverty and social exclusion, such as women, children, older persons, persons with disabilities, migrant workers, refugees and asylumseekers and people living with HIV/AIDS. In assessing States’ efforts to alleviate poverty in compliance with their international human rights obligations, the Special Rapporteur has paid particular attention to the issues examined in her thematic reports. 4. The purpose of the present report is to provide a critical assessment of developments in relation to the recommendations made in the context of country visits, as well as to highlight the challenges confronted by special procedure mandate holders preparing a follow-up report. 5. The Special Rapporteur expresses her gratitude to a wide range of actors, including Governments, United Nations agencies, civil society organizations and development actors, as well as individuals living in poverty, who have actively engaged with and supported the work under the mandate. Challenges and opportunities of a follow-up report 6. An important debate on improving follow-up on States’ reactions to the recommendations and observations of human rights mechanisms is ongoing. Currently, there is no institutionalized mechanism at the international level through which the impact of special procedures’ recommendations can be measured. Several special procedures have developed a systematic method to assess the impact of country visits recommendations, while others have made these assessments on a less systematic basis. For example, some have conducted follow-up visits to previous visits under their mandate to the same country. Those visits have been valuable in highlighting ongoing human rights concerns and assessing the implementation of recommendations.3 Others have formulated follow-up reports on the basis of information requested from the States concerned, national human 1 2 3 Websites cited were last accessed on 2 April 2012. See www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Poverty/Pages/AnnualReports.aspx for the Special Rapporteur’s thematic reports. For example, the Special Rapporteur on the right to food conducted follow-up visits to Guatemala in 2009 (A/HRC/13/33/Add.4) and Brazil in 2010 (A/HRC/13/33/Add.6). For additional examples see the note by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on recent practices in follow-up to special procedures’ activities, submitted at the seventeenth annual meeting of special procedures of the Human Rights Council, para. 11. 3