hearing. Further, it enables State representatives who are not in Geneva to follow the discussions that form the background for the Concluding Observations. This should contribute to a better understanding of how they were reached and increase their legitimacy with the agencies that will eventually be required to implement them. Lastly, the webcasting and recording holds State representatives and Committee members accountable for how they conduct the dialogue, which should contribute to a more constructive environment. Since this is a relatively new initiative, many States are not fully aware of the potential this has for remote monitoring of the review. It is therefore important that NGOs take the Webcast of review of Ireland, 2011: In May 2011, the CAT review of Ireland was webcasted live online. The initiative was very well received by local stakeholders who were not able to travel to Geneva for the review. Among the key concrete outcomes of the webcast were: • Footage used for a news segment focusing on the review on the 9pm news on RTE (the Irish equivalent of BBC). • When presenting her annual report a week after the review, the Irish Children’s Ombudsperson strongly criticised the Irish Government for misrepresenting one of her reports in its discussion with the Committee. This information would never have come to her attention if she had not had access to the webcast. • NGOs produced video compilations of discussions pertaining to their priority issues. • It was possible for the State delegation to use the video footage to double check questions asked when preparing their responses. initiative by using the webcast for their own purposes and introducing it to the relevant State representatives and encouraging them to make full use of it. Phase 4 – Make recommendations for Concluding Observations The Concluding Observations are the main tangible outcome of the review process. This phase of the process is closely linked with the hearing, both in time, but also in relation to the relevant stakeholders. However, where the main objective in the preceding stages is the quality of the dialogue, the objective here is to ensure that the Concluding Observations are of a high quality, can be easily implemented and address your priority issues substantively. In relation to interaction with Committee members, the observations above are still applicable. However, it is important to justify why certain issues should be addressed and to be very clear about what types of recommendations are useful in the national context. Sometimes, recommendations need to be highly critical to ensure that the State representatives appreciate their importance and at other times a more constructive approach will have a better effect. National NGOs are often much better placed to assess this than Committee members who have a less intimate understanding of the national context. It is also important to identify what type of recommendations will be best suited for follow-up after one year and clearly indicate this to the Committee. In addition to the methods outlined in the hearing section, it is important that you clearly link proposed recommendations to concerns identified in your background information and make yourself available to Engaging with State reviews in the UN Committee against Torture: A practical guide 21