A/HRC/10/31 page 15 deteriorating human rights situations, and to coordinate conceptual and operational support for the implementation of resolutions and decisions of the Human Rights Council or other United Nations organs requesting fact-finding missions or investigations. Thus, in 2008, through its rapid response capacity, OHCHR was able to provide support in a number of situations, including in the context of the elections in Georgia to support the United Nations country team, in January; in support of the mission of the Special Rapporteur to Myanmar, in March; through the deployment of a fact-finding mission to Kenya, following the post-electoral violence of December 2007, in February; in Armenia, in support to the United Nations country team, in the context of post-electoral violence, in March; to Beit Hanoun, in support of the High-Level FactFinding Mission mandated by the Council in its resolution S-3/1 in November 2006, deployed in June 2008; in Bolivia, in support of the OHCHR country office in the context of local elections and referendums, in May and June; and in Georgia again and the Russian Federation, to strengthen human rights advice to the country team in the aftermath of the crisis in the region, in August and September. 58. Through its National Institutions Unit, OHCHR continued to provide advice to Member States on the establishment and responsibilities of national human rights institutions, assisting in ensuring their compliance with the Paris Principles and in strengthening their capacity to address protection issues. 6 In 2008, OHCHR thus assisted in the establishment or strengthening of institutions in Bahrain, Bangladesh, Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde, the Central African Republic, Chile, Denmark, Djibouti, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Liberia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, the Sudan (South Sudan), Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Togo, Uganda and Uruguay. It continued to provide secretarial support for the meetings of the Subcommittee on Accreditation of the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. Throughout its work, OHCHR has focused on the importance of partnerships among national human rights institutions, nongovernmental organizations and the United Nations system, at the country, regional and international levels. In 2008, OHCHR started a fellowship programme, whereby the staff member of an A-status national human rights institution works at the Unit for six months in order to gain knowledge of and experience with the United Nations human rights system. 59. Progress towards further integration of human rights in peace missions continued in 2008, including through the release of more public human rights reports by peace missions and through the participation of OHCHR in a number of technical assessment missions, led by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations or the Department of Political Affairs, and other significant mission-planning activities. 60. Increasing engagement in the area of humanitarian work and reform remained an important part of the Office’s focus in 2008. Through the Geneva and New York-based interagency settings and increasingly through field presences, efforts continued to ensure more systematic consideration of human rights in relevant humanitarian discussions and actions. At the country level, an increasing number of human rights field presences have taken a leading role 6 See A/HRC/10/54 and AHRC/10/55.