A/HRC/23/27 B. Treaty bodies 88. OHCHR continued to support the participation of national human rights institutions in the sessions of the treaty bodies. The secretariats of the treaty bodies, the National Institutions and Regional Mechanisms Section and the Geneva representative of the International Coordinating Committee liaised with national human rights institutions prior to each session to encourage them to provide written or oral information and to attend the sessions. OHCHR also prepared briefings on institutions for the attention of treaty bodies, and disseminated relevant recommendations and concluding observations to the institutions concerned. 89. In 2012, human rights treaty bodies examined national human rights institutions in 80 of 127 States. Of the 80, 49 interacted with treaty bodies by submitting reports, briefing the treaty bodies prior to the review or attending the sessions.2 There was a 10 per cent increase in the participation of national human rights institutions in three years: in 2009, of 69 countries with such institutions 36 engaged with treaty bodies. 90. Treaty bodies have been providing national human rights institutions with advice and tools to facilitate their effective engagement, including by issuing general comments, information notes and statements, as well as by inviting the institutions to their meetings. Three treaty bodies (the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Committee on the Rights of the Child) have adopted general comments on national human rights institutions, one (the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination) has amended its rules of procedure to allow A-status institutions to address the Committee in plenary session, and six (the Human Rights Committee, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Committee against Torture, the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) have included in their working methods a section on the participation of national human rights institutions in their activities. 91. At its 106th session, held in October and November 2012, the Human Rights Committee adopted a paper on the relationship of the Committee with national human rights institutions.3 In the paper, the Committee recognized the important role that the institutions, particularly those in full compliance with the Paris Principles, play in bridging the gap between international and national human rights systems, and provided them with guidelines on the reporting procedure, the individual communication procedure under the Optional Protocol and drafting and use of the Committee’s general comments. 92. The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, at its eighth session, held in October and November 2012, adopted a briefing note on the participation of national human rights institutions in the Committee’s work. 93. National human rights institutions engage with treaty bodies in following up on the implementation of their concluding observations. In 2012, the institutions of Armenia, Ireland, Norway and Poland provided the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination with information on the implementation of specific recommendations under the Committee’s follow-up procedure. 2 3 14 Does not include the upcoming sessions of certain treaty bodies, such as the 82nd session of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (11 February – 1 March 2013), the 107th session of the Human Rights Committee (11 – 28 February 2013) and the 54th session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (11 February – 1 March 2013). CCPR/C/106/3.