ways of overcoming obstacles to the realization of its provisions. In this capacity, the Working Group has a preventive role, which it fulfils both during its country visits and by providing advisory services when requested. Furthermore, the Working Group regularly transmits, to the Governments concerned, summaries of allegations of violations of the Declaration in their countries that it has received from relatives of disappeared persons and non-governmental organizations, and invites them to comment on these allegations if they so wish. Despite the Working Group’s efforts to remind Governments of their obligation to implement the Declaration by taking appropriate legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures, very little progress has been made in practice. With some exceptions, States have not begun to systematically incorporate the principles set out in the Declaration into their national legislation. The Working Group has repeatedly stressed that the obligation to implement the Declaration applies not only to States where enforced disappearances actually occurred in the past or have continued up to the present day; legislative and other preventive measures, in particular, must be taken by all States to ensure that such acts will not occur in the future. To facilitate the interpretation of the Declaration, the Working Group has to date issued general comments on the definition of enforced disappearance and on articles 3, 4, 10, 17, 18 and 19.7 The Working Group reports annually to the Human Rights Council on its activities. It reports on all cases of enforced disappearance that it has received during the year, country by country, and on the decisions it has taken on them. It provides the Council for each country with a statistical summary of cases transmitted, clarifications made and the status of the person concerned on the date of clarification. The Working Group includes conclusions and recommendations in its reports, and makes observations on the situation of disappearances in individual countries. Since 1993, it has reported on the implementation of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and the obstacles encountered. Periodically it also reports on broader issues surrounding the phenomenon of disappearance. 7 These general comments are available in full at http://www.ohchr.org. 14