A/HRC/12/34 page 10 28. Apart from this input, in the interest of further understanding specific challenges facing indigenous women, the Special Rapporteur participated in the Regional Consultation on “Violence against Indigenous Women in Asia Pacific” with the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Yakin Ertürk. The Regional Consultation was organized by the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development, and Mahila Sarvangeen Utkarsha Mandal, and was followed by a National Consultation on Indigenous Women in India, with activities from 14 to 18 October 2008 in New Delhi. Participants in the consultations, many of them indigenous women from the region, identified key recurring issues contributing to violence, including discriminatory acts against indigenous women around the following themes: economic globalization, militarization and armed conflict, and culture, tradition and religion and their intersectional impacts on the lives of indigenous women. The discussions with the two Special Rapporteurs were directed towards identifying effective strategies and mechanisms for addressing multiple forms of violence against indigenous women at the national, regional and international levels and to learn from good practices. 29. Additionally, the Special Rapporteur is collaborating with NGOs and indigenous experts on two initiatives related to two thematic areas of recurrent concern to indigenous peoples. One is a seminar, organized by the NGOs Khredda and the UNESCO Centre of Catalonia (UNESCOCAT) to take place in October of this year, on dispute resolution mechanisms with regard to extractive industries operating or seeking to operate within indigenous territories. This seminar and the report it will generate correspond to a recommendation made last year by the Permanent Forum that the Special Rapporteur carry out a study on transnational corporations, and it is intended to complement the Permanent Forum’s own work on this subject. A second initiative is a multifaceted study on legal pluralism and indigenous customary law, to be carried out in collaboration with the International Council on Human Rights Policy and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. This study is likely to begin with a workshop at the University of Arizona, United States of America, early next year. 3. Country reports 30. A third area of the Special Rapporteur’s work involves investigating and reporting on the overall human rights situations of indigenous peoples in selected countries. The reports of the country situations include conclusions and recommendations aimed at strengthening good practices, identifying areas of concern, and improving the human rights conditions of indigenous peoples. The reporting process typically involves a visit to the countries under review, including to the capital and selected places of concern within the country, during which the Special Rapporteur interacts with Government representatives, indigenous communities from different regions, and a cross section of civil society actors that work on issues relevant to indigenous peoples. In accordance with the Code of Conduct for special procedures mandate-holders, these visits can only take place with Government consent and cooperation. 31. Over the past year, the Special Rapporteur has visited Brazil, Nepal, Botswana, and Australia to report on those countries, and he has conducted follow-up visits to Chile and Colombia to evaluate their progress in implementing the recommendations in the reports of his predecessor. Additionally, the Special Rapporteur has received positive indications from the Governments of the Republic of the Congo and the Russian Federation for forthcoming visits, and has outstanding requests for visits to India and Indonesia, which he hopes will be considered favourably in the near future.