A/HRC/37/79 institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (Paris Principles) and to respond adequately to the protection components of their mandates. 13. The support of OHCHR on the ground through technical cooperation for the engagement and follow-up of the work of the international human rights mechanisms, including the treaty bodies, special procedures and the universal periodic review, was also an area of focus during the session. The Board noted the positive impact of the placement of additional Human Rights Officers under the treaty body capacity-building programme, in 10 OHCHR regional offices to support States, upon their request, in fulfilling their treaty reporting obligations pursuant to General Assembly resolution 68/268. That dedicated capacity has enhanced the overall capacity on the ground of OHCHR to follow up and sustain the necessary support to States in their engagement with the United Nations human rights mechanisms and in implementing recommendations deriving from them. Technical assistance provided by the Office through this additional support has resulted in new ratifications of treaties; the submission of outstanding State party reports and updated common core documents; improved and more constructive dialogues before treaty bodies; and an increased interest in a number of countries towards institutionalizing their current interministerial coordination committees on engaging with the United Nations human rights mechanisms into a national mechanism for reporting and follow-up. The Board welcomed the OHCHR practical guide to effective engagement with such mechanisms, published in 2016, and the recently published OHCHR training guide to reporting to the United Nations treaty bodies. 14. The Board was briefed by the secretariat on the status of implementation of the workplan and cost plan for the Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation and reviewed in detail the programmes covered by the Voluntary Fund. It endorsed the status of implementation and the workplan for 2017. B. Forty-fifth session (Middle East and North Africa Region) 15. In accordance with its practice of holding one of its two meetings each year in a State where OHCHR has a field presence, the Board held its forty-fifth session in Lebanon. The main purpose of the visit, as in the case of previous visits to the field, was to gather in situ observations of the role and added value of OHCHR, this time through a regional presence, to increase its understanding of the type of technical cooperation that OHCHR provides and to give relevant guidance. The Board took the opportunity of the visit to the region to also visit the OHCHR office in the occupied Palestinian territory, one of the presences the Voluntary Fund had been supporting over the last several years. 16. Holding the session in Beirut, the first in the Middle East and North Africa region, provided an excellent opportunity to observe first-hand the type of technical cooperation that OHCHR is best placed to offer in the region, starting with and based upon its monitoring role. The Board discussed with members of the OHCHR team and local partners how the physical presence of the Office and its technical expertise and capacity was used to gather evidence-based information and credible, validated data on the human rights situation and its challenges, and subsequently design, together with the relevant partners, appropriate responses and programmes. The Board found the timing of the session very relevant, as the Office was moving ahead with its new programming cycle. 17. In Beirut, the Board held discussions with staff members of the regional office and with various national authorities in Lebanon, including the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Human Rights Committee of the Parliament, and with United Nations partners and civil society organizations. The Board visited the Restart Centre for the rehabilitation of victims of violence and torture in Beirut, which has been a recipient of financial support from the Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, and discussed the various types of cooperation in which the organization is involved, in addition to the financial support from OHCHR. It also visited the Arab NGO Network for Development and met with representatives of the United Nations and a wide range of civil society organizations working regionally on human rights and development matters. The discussions focused on the OHCHR programme in the region, its relevance and its impact. 6