engagement with international organizations’.10 The Paris Principles standards are also a critical foundation for the existence of GANHRI, whose formal objective is to ‘promote and strengthen NHRIs to operate in line with the Paris Principles’ through the accreditation of NHRI compliance with the Paris Principles, among other functions.11 Paris Principles accreditation confers formal rights and privileges on NHRIs. This includes membership of GANHRI as well as other NHRI networks like the APF,12 but also the right to participate in sessions of the United Nations Human Rights Council and some other United Nations treaty bodies.13 NHRIs accredited with GANHRI receive either an ‘A’ status, which indicates full compliance with the Paris Principles, or ‘B’ Status, which indicates partial compliance with the Paris Principles.14 GANHRI has established the SCA to undertake the function of Paris Principles accreditation. Meeting biannually in Geneva, the SCA considers applications from NHRIs and makes recommendations on accreditation status. The SCA’s recommendations are published in a report from each session and also include a list of issues on Paris Principles compliance identified for each NHRI under review. 15 These public reports are important sources of jurisprudence from the SCA and provide evidence of how GANHRI applies the Paris Principles standards in practice in a variety of diverse national contexts. The SCA has also developed the General Observations of the Sub-Committee on Accreditation,16 which are authoritative and detailed interpretations of the Paris Principles that are considered and applied by the SCA during its accreditation of NHRIs. They are also designed to ‘[i]nstruct institutions when they are developing their own processes and mechanisms, to ensure Paris Principles compliance’.17 The General Observations follow a similar approach to the general comments and general recommendations issued by United Nations treaty bodies, as instruments of interpretation of particular human rights treaties. However, the General Observations are notably shorter in substance and do not reference the SCA’s jurisprudence, among a few other differences. 18 The General Observations mainly offer an elaboration of the structural and operational requirements of the Paris Principles. While at present there is no standalone general observation that deals with gender or the rights of women and girls under the Paris Principles, there is some direction on the role of gender in in the internal structures and operational aspects of NHRIs. Pluralism and gender General Observation 1.7 on Ensuring pluralism of the NHRI contains overarching guidance for NHRIs on gender diversity under the rubric of ‘pluralism’, which is a concept addressed explicitly 10 Statute of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, adopted by the General Assembly of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions 15 March 2023 <https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/countries/nhri/ganhri/EN_GANHRI_Statute_adopted_15032023.pdf > (‘GANHRI Statute’), preamble. 11 Ibid arts 5 and 7(b). 12 See Constitution of the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions, adopted at the APF 22 meeting on 29 November 2017 and effective 1 January 2018, rules 11.2 – 11.3. 13 See, eg, Institution-building of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Human Rights Council Resolution 5/1, UN Doc A/HRC/RES/5/1, 18 June 2007, annex (‘VII. Rules of Procedure’) rule 7. 14 GANHRI Statute (n 10) arts 24.1–24.2. 15 See, eg, Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, Subcommittee on Accreditation, Report and Recommendations of the Session of the Sub-Committee on Accreditation, Online, 26-28 March 2024, Geneva, 29 April – 3 May 2024 <https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/countries/nhri/ganhri/SCA-Report-Second-Session2024-EN.pdf> (‘May 2024 SCA Report’). 16 Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, General Observations of the Sub-Committee on Accreditation, 21 February 2018 <https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Countries/NHRI/GANHRI/EN_GeneralObservations_Revisions_ado pted_21.02.2018_vf.pdf> (‘General Observations’). 17 Ibid 2. 18 For further commentary on the General Observations, see David Langtry and Kirsten Roberts Lyer, National Human Rights Institutions: Rules, Requirements, and Practice (Oxford University Press, 2021) 49-51. 4 Gender Equality and the Paris Principles