A/HRC/10/55 page 31 4.2. Bosnia and Herzegovina: Human Rights Ombudsman (HRO) Recommendation: The Sub-Committee recommends that consideration of the application for re-accreditation of the HRO be deferred. In support of the ongoing effort to merge the existing human rights institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Sub-Committee agreed to defer the consideration of the re-accreditation of the national human rights institution of Bosnia and Herzegovina until the October/November 2009 session of the Sub-Committee. The Sub-Committee refers to General Observation 6.2 “Deferral of re-accreditation applications”, in particular to stress the timeframe contained in the General Observation and adopted by the ICC. 4.3. Germany: German Institute for Human Rights (GIHR) The Sub-Committee reviewed this application in the absence of the German representative on the Sub-Committee. Recommendation: The Sub-Committee recommends that the GIHR be re-accredited with status A. The Sub-Committee notes the following: (1) It refers to the importance for the GIHR to further broaden its mandate to include complaint handling functions; (2) It stresses the importance of ensuring pluralism at all levels in the GIHR on a more permanent and formal basis and in a manner distinct from the length of the contracts of the staff in particular with regard to gender balance and ethnic diversity. It also underlines the need to clarify the contradiction between articles 9(1) and 11(3) of the GIHR Statutes in order to ensure that the Board of Trustees provides a written explanation for rejecting an application for General Membership or for expelling a member. In this context the Sub-Committee refers to General Observation 2.1 “Ensuring pluralism”; (3) While article 24(2) of the GIHR’s Statute provide that the German Government’s representatives on the Board of the Trustees have no voting rights, article 24(1) indicates that two of the GIHR’s Trustees must be members of the German’s Bundestag’s Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid. The Statute does not exclude these representatives from voting on decisions made by the Board of Trustees. The Sub-Committee refers to General Observation 2.3 “Government representatives on national institutions”. The Sub-Committee expresses its concern that the GIHR is founded by a Motion of the Bundestag (Motion 14/4801). Notwithstanding the fact that the Motion was unanimously adopted and that the GIHR is functioning independently and effectively under this arrangement, the Sub-Committee reiterates the need for an NHRI to be established in a constitutional or legal text and therefore recommends the adoption of a stronger legal basis for the Institute. It refers to General Observation 1.1 “Establishment of national institutions”.