A/HRC/23/27 2. Bureau meetings 72. OHCHR provided secretarial and technical support for two statutory Bureau meetings of the International Coordinating Committee, held in Geneva on 19 and 20 March 2012, and in Amman on 4 November 2012. The Bureau members discussed their strategic priorities, including the engagement of national human rights institutions in the international human rights system. They endorsed the report of the Subcommittee on Accreditation of March 2012, and amended the statute of the International Coordinating Committee to include exceptional circumstances leading to immediate special review of accredited institutions. 3. Subcommittee on Accreditation 73. OHCHR provided secretarial support for the sessions of the Subcommittee on Accreditation, held in Geneva in March and November 2012. 4. National human rights institutions in Portuguese-speaking countries 74. In October 2012, in Cape Verde, OHCHR, in collaboration with the Ombudsman, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Parliament of Portugal, and the Ministry of Justice of Cape Verde, organized a workshop for Portuguese-speaking countries on national human rights institutions in compliance with the Paris Principles. Representatives from Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, Sao Tome and Principe and Timor-Leste participated in the meeting, and adopted the Praia declaration which called on States to establish national human rights institutions, and encouraged such institutions to seek accreditation or re-accreditation with the International Coordinating Committee. 5. National human rights institutions and discrimination 75. OHCHR organized a seminar for national human rights institutions to validate a draft OHCHR publication on national mechanisms for protection against and the elimination of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. The publication is aimed at providing States, national human rights institutions, equality bodies, other similar mechanisms and relevant stakeholders with a tool to implement the commitments made at the World Conferences held in Durban in 2001 and Geneva in 2009, and in particular to establish institutions or to strengthen the capacity of existing national mechanisms to handle discrimination issues. III. Cooperation between United Nations human rights mechanisms and national human rights institutions A. Human Rights Council 76. The cooperation of national human rights institutions with international and regional human rights mechanisms is a key requirement of the Paris Principles. OHCHR, in coordination with the International Coordinating Committee and its Geneva representative, continued to support the engagement of such institutions with the Human Rights Council mechanisms. In June 2011, the General Assembly, in its resolution 65/281, adopted the outcome of the review of the work and functioning of the Human Right Council, which included provisions on the participation in and interaction with the universal periodic review of A-status national human rights institutions. 77. In 2012, national human rights institutions were active before and during the sessions of the Human Rights Council: delivering statements, submitting written 12