A/HRC/16/77 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council decision 2/102, in which the Council requested the United Nations 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 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had initially interpreted decision 2/102 as extending previous reports of the Commission of Human Rights and providing for an annual reporting cycle. Until recently, this interpretation had been deemed to have received the tacit approval of member States. However, an objection was placed on the record in 2010, albeit in the context of another report which equally used decision 2/102 as the basis for its annual reporting. OHCHR has thus further reviewed the said decision, and concluded that the Human Rights Council sought to fill a technical gap by ensuring that reports which were deemed to be submitted to the sixty-second session of the Human Rights Commission would be extended by one year and transferred to the subsequent substantive session of the Human Rights Council. With this transition period over, and the objection now on record with regard to the initial interpretation of annual reporting cycles, if the Human Rights Council wishes such reporting to be continued, a new Human Rights Council resolution or decision on the matter should be tabled. 2. The present report outlines the progress achieved since the last report on the accreditation of national human rights institutions (NHRIs) (A/HRC/13/45), submitted to the Human Rights Council at its thirteenth session in March 2010. The report should be read together with the report of the Secretary-General on national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (A/HRC/16/76), which includes, inter alia, information on OHCHR activities to establish and strengthen NHRIs; measures taken by Governments and the said institutions in this regard; and NHRI cooperation with international human rights mechanisms. 3. The Subcommittee on Accreditation of the International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions has the mandate to review and analyse applications for accreditation and to make recommendations to members of the International Coordinating Committee Bureau on the applicant’s compliance with the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (Paris Principles). The Subcommittee consists of representatives from one “A” status NHRI from each of the four International Coordination Committee regional groupings: Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, and Europe. Subcommittee members are appointed by the regional groupings for a renewable term of three years and they designate by consensus, for a renewable term of one year, one member to act as the Chairperson. Currently, the members are representatives of the NHRIs of Canada, Togo, the Republic of Korea and Germany. OHCHR is a permanent observer of the Subcommittee on Accreditation and serves as its secretariat. 4. A table reflecting the accreditation status as of December 2010 is included in the annex to the present document. II. Improvement of the International Coordinating Committee accreditation process 5. The accreditation process carried out by the Subcommittee on Accreditation, with the support of OHCHR, is a dynamic process which has over the years increased in its 3