PART 2: Procedures of the Human Rights Commitee and the Committee against Torture Make such contacts and take such action as appropriate for the due performance of the follow-up mandate. The Special Rapporteur shall make such recommendations for further action by the Committee as may be necessary.515 The scope of the mandate allows for flexibility in the implementation of the Special Rapporteur’s duties. Where a violation is found to have occurred, the State is requested to provide the HRC with information regarding its course of action within 180 days of the finding being communicated to it.516 The Special Rapporteur will then commence a dialogue, through written representations and also through meetings with diplomatic representatives of the State party concerned, regarding the ways in which it may provide a remedy to the author of the communication, and otherwise implement the HRC’s findings.517 The response of the State party in this situation is labelled a ‘follow-up reply’. Information regarding the compliance of the State with the recommendations is often received from sources other than the State party, including the author of the relevant complaint, his or her representative, and NGOs. When a State fails to reply, the Special Rapporteur might therefore attempt, besides the scheduling of a follow-up meeting with the State party’s representatives, to arrange a visit by one or several HRC members, together if deemed convenient with members of other treaty bodies, to the territory of the State party concerned.518 The lack of response and/or unwillingness of a State party to cooperate will be made public in the Annual Report of the HRC. Such bad publicity is a soft yet real sanction; all States wish to avoid such international embarrassment. The Special Rapporteur also makes recommendations and presents regular follow-up progress reports to the HRC. These reports provide a “detailed overview of the state of implementation of the Committee’s views”.519 The information on which these recommendations and reports are based includes information from the State party, NGOs, and any personal follow-up missions or consultations conducted by the Special Rapporteur. 515 HRC, Rules of Procedure, Rule 101(2). 516 The time frame of 180 days is not set out in the Rules of Procedure, but it is the current (established) practice of the HRC. 517 See, for examples of follow-up meetings of the Special Rapporteur, HRC, Report of the Human Rights Committee, 103rd and 104th session, (2012) UN Doc. A/67/40, p. 144. 518 See UNOG, News and Media, “Committee discusses individual communications, case management of individual communications and follow-up to concluding observations”, 22 July 2013, available at: http://www.unog.ch/. 519 Schmidt, M., “Follow-up Mechanisms Before UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies and the UN Mechanisms Beyond”, in A. F. Bayefsky (ed.), UN Human Rights Treaty System in the 21 Century, Kluwer Law International (2000), p. 236. 155