strategies and the appointment of relevant liaison officers; remains, however, particularly concerned by the failure to implement these Guidelines by EU delegations, calls on the EEAS to develop an implementation plan with clear indicators and deadlines in order to continue progress towards effective implementation of the Guidelines, and requests the list of available local strategies; calls on the EEAS, the Council, the Commission and the Member States to take the necessary measures to increase awareness of the Guidelines amongst human rights defenders and EU diplomats working in non-EU countries; calls on the EU missions to maintain regular contacts with human rights defenders before taking action on their behalf and to provide them with feedback; emphasises that during the process of drafting local implementation strategies, a wide range of human rights defenders working in both urban and rural environments on economic, social and cultural rights as well as on civic and political rights should be consulted; notes that local implementation strategies should include a concrete agenda of measures to be taken to improve the protection of human rights defenders and that the impact of these strategies should be evaluated after a reasonable period of time; calls in this respect for an evaluation of the implementation of the assistance and measures undertaken by civil society organisations to support human rights defenders under the EIDHR; 97. Calls on the HR/VP to prioritise a more effective implementation of the existing tools and mechanisms for coherent and systematic protection of human rights defenders, calls on the High Representative of the European Union and on all Commissioners with responsibilities in the area of External Relations to institutionalise a policy of systematically meeting with human rights defenders when they travel officially in non-EU countries, and underlines that support for human rights defenders should also be imperatively included in the mandate of EU Special Representatives; underlines that both the High Representative and the Special Representatives will be held accountable by the European Parliament for their action in this regard; 98. Urges the Council, the Commission and the Member States to implement the measures proposed by Parliament in its resolution on EU policies in favour of human rights defenders, adopted in June 2010, with emphasis on measures aimed at providing swift assistance to human rights defenders at risk, such as emergency visas and shelter, and those implying public support and visible recognition of the work of human rights defenders, with a gender perspective in the implementation of the guidelines in favour of women human rights defenders and other particularly vulnerable groups, such as defenders working to promote economic, social and cultural rights and those working with the rights of minorities and indigenous people; calls on the HR/VP to push for the implementation of the Shelter Cities programme, which provides shelter for human rights defenders in European cities; 99. Calls, in the context of the implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon and the establishment of the EEAS, for the EU institutions to establish an interinstitutional cooperation mechanism on human rights defenders; understands that the creation of such a mechanism could be eased by the setting up of focal points and explicit guidelines for human rights defenders in all the EU institutions and development of closer cooperation, with the focal points for human rights defenders and those responsible for human rights and democracy in EU missions and delegations; calls on the EEAS to set up a statistical database on cases where the EU delegations provided assistance to human rights defenders, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the guidelines and to report back to the EP on the results of these evaluations; 100. Acknowledges conclusions in many human rights reports that human rights defenders, while making an invaluable contribution to the protection and promotion of human rights at the risk of their own personal safety, have been suffering from increasingly strong attacks in various forms, such as attacks on freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of expression or freedom of association, assaults on, and murder of, relevant persons, arbitrary arrests, unfair trials and closure of the offices of civil society organisations; calls on the EU delegations to play a more active role in