be assessed what output can be expected from the UN human rights mechanisms and if this is likely to result in positive national change/outcome. As illustrated above, the two main tangible outputs from UN human rights mechanisms are country-specific recommendations and thematic standard setting. The following considerations will need to be contextualised to the specific national political and human rights situation and the situation of your respective organisation. 1. Do I have a national advocacy strategy/ priority and what is it? Often the activities and outputs of UN human rights mechanisms have the biggest national impact if there are national stakeholders, including NGOs, that actively work with and lobby their national governments to effectively implement the sought-after recommendations. There is no need for a very formalised strategy, but it is important that there are national advocacy/lobbying activities taking place and that these are working towards clearly established objectives. 2. Is my country at all open to implementing recommendations made by UN human rights mechanisms? In general, most countries in the world are to some degree responsive to UN human rights mechanisms, but there are also some States where it is difficult to identify any national effort at implementing recommendations from UN human rights mechanism. 3. What output do I hope to gain from the UN and how will that support the realisation of my national advocacy strategy/priority? It is very important to consider what type of output you will need to support the achievement of your national advocacy priority. This goes both for content and form of the output. What issues should be addressed? Should it be very detailed or more broadly focused recommendations? Should recommendations be of a political or expert nature? This will help you determine what mechanisms are most likely to deliver the output you need. If you have clearly defined national advocacy objectives, your country demonstrates some level of openness to implementing recommendations from UN human rights mechanisms and you believe that the achievement of your advocacy objectives can be supported by recommendations from one or more UN bodies, it is likely to be relevant for you to engage. Determining the necessary investment Once you have determined that there is relevance in engaging with UN human rights mechanisms and the type of output that would be most useful, it is important to carefully assess what investment will be necessary to have a realistic chance of achieving the desired output. Below you will find a set of general considerations that may be supplemented with a more detailed discussion with the IRCT about how to most effectively engage with UN human rights mechanism, including with the support of the IRCT. 1. Does our organisation have previous experience with international advocacy towards the UN or other institutions? Engaging with UN Human Rights Mechanisms: An Introduction 9