A/HRC/17/2 of human rights in accordance with the Principles relating to the Status of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (“the Paris Principles”),6 Reaffirming the important role that such national institutions play and will continue to play in promoting and protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, in strengthening participation and the rule of law, and in developing and enhancing public awareness of those rights and fundamental freedoms, Recalling the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights on 25 June l993, which reaffirmed the important and constructive role played by national human rights institutions, in particular in their advisory capacity to the competent authorities and their role in preventing and remedying human rights violations in disseminating information on human rights and in education in human rights, Recognizing the important role of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in assisting the development of independent and effective national human rights institutions, in accordance with the Paris Principles, and recognizing also in this regard the potential for strengthened and complementary cooperation among the Office of the High Commissioner, the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and those national institutions in the promotion and protection of human rights, Taking note of the most recent reports of the Secretary-General submitted to the Human Rights Council on national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights7 and on the process currently utilized by the International Coordinating Committee to accredit national institutions in compliance with the Paris Principles,8 Welcoming the strengthening in all regions of regional and cross-regional cooperation among national human rights institutions, and between national human rights institutions and other regional human rights forums, 1. Reaffirms the importance of the establishment and strengthening of effective, independent and pluralistic national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights, in accordance with the Paris Principles; 2. Recognizes the role of independent national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights in working together with Governments to ensure full respect for human rights at the national level, including by contributing to follow-up actions, as appropriate, to the recommendations resulting from the international human rights mechanisms; 3. Welcomes the increasingly important role of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights in supporting cooperation between their Governments and the United Nations in the promotion and protection of human rights; 4. Encourages Member States to establish effective, independent and pluralistic national institutions or, where they already exist, to strengthen them for the promotion and protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, as outlined in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, and to do so in accordance with the Paris Principles; 5. Recognizes that, in accordance with the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, it is the right of each State to choose the framework for national institutions that 6 7 8 26 General Assembly resolution 48/134, annex. A/HRC/16/76. A/HRC/16/77. GE.12-13630