A/HRC/22/47 through effective interaction with civil society organizations working on human rights issues. Members and staff of these institutions can be considered as human rights defenders and, as such, should be supported by public authorities and protected if needed. 117. National human rights institutions can potentially play a significant role in the protection of human rights defenders. Such a role is ensured by national institutions having a robust mandate with competence to receive complaints from individuals and associations working to defend human rights, investigate such complaints and provide a wide range of protection measures. 118. The most common measure applied by national institutions to protect human rights defenders appears to be formal complaints mechanisms. Several institutions have established focal points and units dedicated specifically to human rights defenders in recent years. This is highly commendable, but there is a need to ensure that such entities are adequately resourced and have the capacity to act promptly when violations against defenders are reported. Their effectiveness and transparency are crucial in order to ensure such mechanisms are credible in the eyes of those they are designed to protect. To ensure this, relevant authorities must be responsive to the recommendations issued by the national human rights institution. As these rarely carry legal responsibility due to the advisory function of the national institution, Governments should find ways to implement the recommendations effectively and promptly. In this connection, it is of great importance that Government officials are sensitized to the important work of defenders and familiar with the Declaration on human rights defenders. B. Recommendations 119. To Member States: (a) Should follow the Paris Principles and the advice provided by the SubCommittee on Accreditation and ICC when it comes to establishing, mandating and supporting the work on national institutions in order to ensure that institutions are strong, independent and effective partners in the promotion and protection of human rights; (b) National human rights institutions should be accountable to Parliament and to the public, including through the discussion of annual reports, which should be widely disseminated and made easily available to the public; (c) Appropriate follow-up mechanisms to recommendations issued by national institutions should be established. In this connection, it is advisable that annual reports of national institutions be presented and discussed in Parliament and that adequate follow-up be entrusted to the corresponding parliamentary committees and that an interministerial task force be appointed to mainstream their recommendations and monitor their implementation; (d) Members and staff working for national institutions should be considered, in law and in practice, as human rights defenders and, as such, be publicly recognized and supported by the Government and public authorities; (e) Governments and other branches of the State should refrain from unduly interfering with the independence and autonomy of national human rights institutions. Any instance of intimidation, stigmatization, harassment or attack against members or staff of national institutions should be promptly investigated, with perpetrators brought to justice and remedy provided to victims; 20