but should invite input from the NHRI and from civil society. In some countries every time a state report is due, the government organizes a truly inclusive process that ensures input from civil society, the NHRI and other relevant stakeholders and takes care to reflect such input fairly in the state report in question. In particular in connection with the UPR process (the Universal Periodic Review process of the Human Rights Council) many governments hold workshops and meetings to get input. It does not encroach on the independence of a NHRI to assist the government in organizing an inclusive process and in helping to ensure that all relevant issues, such as reproductive rights, are put on the agenda for the process. If the government is not prepared to lead a participatory process, nobody is better placed than the NHRI to take the initiative to gather the stakeholders to provide input that can both be communicated to the government for inclusion in some form in the state report and be used for shadow reporting (the term normally used for reports by NHRIs, civil society and other stakeholders to supplement the official state reporting). Since the NHRI is centrally placed with respect to international reporting, no matter the position of the government, the NHRI can take steps to ensure that reproductive rights are considered for all reports, including reports for the UPR process. If the government does not include this issue in a satisfactory way in the actual state reporting, the NHRI should make sure this is included, for instance, in the UPR stakeholders’ report or in shadow reports to United Nations Treaty Bodies. 58 The United Nations human rights committees are pleased to welcome representatives of NHRIs to their meetings and will in some cases even give NHRIs the right to make its own presentation, independent of the presentation of the government, as part of the examination process. This is an excellent platform to highlight issues relating to reproductive rights. The United Nations human rights committees have made broad ranging statements on reproductive rights in their general comments/recommendations and concluding observations as can be seen in Annex 1. In addition many policy documents, several of them universally approved or adopted by governments at the highest level, contain statements and commitments with respect to reproductive rights. When providing input on reproductive rights, either to state reporting or in shadow reports, it strengthens the arguments if the input is supported by reference to such statements. Once the human rights body in question has made its final pronouncement based on the examination, the NHRI again has an important role to play. The concluding observations should be scrutinized by the NHRI, and the NHRI should monitor to what extent the state is implementing these. As indicated above, the NHRI can also play a role in assuring that civil society takes steps to play a similar constructive role when it comes to examination by United Nations human rights committees.