A/HRC/10/55 page 2 I. INTRODUCTION 1. The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council decision 2/102, in which the Council decided to request the High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue with the fulfilment of her activities, in accordance with all previous decisions adopted by the Commission on Human Rights and to update the relevant reports and studies. The present report outlines progress achieved since the previous report on the accreditation of national human rights institutions to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/7/70) and should be read in conjunction with the report of the Secretary-General on national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (A/HRC/10/54), which includes, inter alia, information on ways and means of enhancing the participation of the said institutions in the work of the Council. II. SUBCOMMITTEE ON ACCREDITATION 2. The mandate of the Subcommittee on Accreditation of the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights is to review and analyse accreditation applications and to make recommendations to the Committee Bureau members on the compliance of applicants with the Paris Principles. The Subcommittee is composed of one A-status accredited institution for each of the four regional groupings: Africa, the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe. Subcommittee members are appointed by the regional groupings for a renewable term of three years. The Subcommittee designates by consensus, for a renewable term of one year, one of its members to act as the Chairperson of the Subcommittee. As at December 2008, the Subcommittee is composed of representatives of the human rights institutions of Canada, for the Americas; Rwanda, for Africa; the Republic of Korea, for Asia Pacific; and Germany, for Europe (Chairperson). The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) participates in the work of the Subcommittee as a permanent observer and in its capacity as Committee secretariat. The Subcommittee has acknowledged the high degree of support and professionalism of the staff of the Committee secretariat, namely the National Institutions Unit of OHCHR. 3. In 2008, the Subcommittee reviewed the accreditation status (re-accreditation reviews) of human rights institutions from Albania, Algeria, Ecuador, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Ireland, Kenya, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mongolia, the Niger, Paraguay, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, Thailand, Uganda and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of). It considered new applications from the institutions of Croatia, Maldives, Qatar, the Russian Federation, Switzerland, Timor-Leste, Ukraine and Great Britain, and conducted special reviews of the institutions of Afghanistan and Nepal. As at December 2008, 64 institutions had been accredited with A status in compliance with the Paris Principles by the Committee. 4. The table reflecting the accreditation status of national human rights institutions as at December 2008 is attached in annex I. Annexes II and III include, respectively, the April and November 2008 reports of the Subcommittee on Accreditation.