A/HRC/39/21 26. Under article 18.1 of the Statute, the Subcommittee reviewed the national human rights institution of Azerbaijan. 27. In accordance with article 16.2 of the Statute, the Subcommittee decided to initiate a special review of the national human rights institutions of Chile and Ecuador at its session in October 2018. III. Amendments to the accreditation process 28. The Statute of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, the rules of procedure of the Subcommittee on Accreditation and its general observations were amended in March 2017 and February 2018 to further improve the accreditation procedure. A. Amendments to the Statute of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions 29. Article 12 of the Statute of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions was amended to introduce a procedure for institutions to challenge the recommendation of the Subcommittee on Accreditation. The procedure requires that a Bureau member challenging a recommendation of the Subcommittee concerning its accreditation should be excluded from participating in the Bureau hearings and deliberation of the challenge (art. 12.7). An alternate member should then be appointed by the relevant regional network to replace that member and participate in the entire Bureau meeting (art. 12.8). 30. The option for the Subcommittee on Accreditation to defer a decision on accreditation or reaccreditation was formalized in article 14.1, as this practice was not yet enshrined in the Statute. The procedure now also provides that deferrals of accreditation or reaccreditation and special reviews of the status of institutions are decisions of the Subcommittee on Accreditation, and not recommendations to the Bureau of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (arts. 14 and 16.3). Unlike recommendations, decisions cannot be challenged under article 12. B. Amendments to the rules of procedure of the Subcommittee on Accreditation 31. To ensure the participation of all regional networks in the sessions of the Subcommittee on Accreditation, article 3.1 of the rules of procedure now provides that, when a member is unavailable to attend a session, an alternate from the same regional network should be appointed. The same applies if a member’s institution is under review during a session, a conflict of interest has been identified or a member’s institution is under notice of intention to downgrade its status. 32. A major new provision in the rules of procedure (art. 4.7) allows a national human rights institution under review to inform the secretariat when it considers that a member of the Subcommittee on Accreditation has a real or perceived conflict of interest in the review. This is facilitated by the posting of participants attending the sessions of the Subcommittee on Accreditation on the website of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions by the secretariat ahead of the session (art. 4.3). The Bureau will assess if there is a real or perceived conflict of interest, and if the member can attend the session of the Subcommittee on Accreditation. 6