gender equity and opportunities for advancement’.44 Similarly, in its November 2017 review of the NHRI of Panama, the SCA recognised ‘the efforts undertaken by DPRP to address pluralism including that it reports that out of the twelve (12) current directors, seven (7) are women, and that out of the eleven (11) regional branches chiefs, eight (8) are women’. 45 In its May 2024 review of the NHRI of Sri Lanka, the SCA identified that 48% of the institution’s staff were women and acknowledged that the NHRI was ‘formulating a comprehensive gender inclusion policy to guide pluralism and diversity within its staff’. 46 However, the report also noted that the NHRI’s enabling legislation was ‘silent on the requirement for a pluralistic and diverse composition of the HRCSL staff, including linguistic and ethnic representation’, encouraging the NHRI to ‘continue to establish measures to support pluralism and diversity’. 47 This issue was raised with the NHRI in the context of a recommendation to upgrade the institution from B to A status, which may indicate that the SCA was encouraged by the NHRI’s work on the gender inclusion policy and considered the proportion of female staff to be sufficient, although this is not made clear in the report. Similar comments were made in the report from the same session in relation to the NHRI of Portugal, which the SCA acknowledged had a proportion of 71% female staff.48 The SCA raised pluralism and diversity as an issue of concern in its review of the NHRI of Ghana in March 2019, highlighting ‘that there is gender imbalance in the staff complement’ of the NHRI, but without providing any further detail on the extent of this gender balance. 49 In other accreditation reviews, the SCA has highlighted where specific proportions of female staff were not considered to represent sufficient gender balance, with reported proportions of 36%,50 34%,51 27%,52 25.92%,53 and 20%54 female staff all being considered by the SCA to be insufficient. There is often an absence of detail in the SCA’s reporting on pluralism, with pluralism and diversity among staff often identified as an issue of concern without specifying whether this concern is relating to the representation of women, and/or other marginalised groups, or both. For example, in its October 2023 review of the NHRI of Moldova, the SCA noted that the NHRI’s ‘enabling law is silent with regards to pluralism and diversity of its staff’, recommending that the institution ‘advocate for the formalization of processes that ensure that the principles of pluralism and diversity are reflected in its staff [and] takes steps to ensure these principles are implemented’. 55 This leaves the NHRI under review, and indeed other NHRIs or stakeholders that may consider the SCA’s report as a reference for guidance in their own context, to speculate as whether the SCA was concerned with the representation of women, and/or with other groups among NHRI staff. While the lack of prescription in the SCA’s recommendations offers the NHRI some latitude in 44 Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, Subcommittee on Accreditation, Report and Recommendations of the Session of the Sub-Committee on Accreditation, Geneva, 27-31 October 2014 <https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Countries/NHRI/GANHRI/SCA_OCTOBER_2014_FINAL_REPORT_ -_ENGLISH.pdf> (‘October 2014 SCA Report’) 17 (Afghanistan). 45 November 2017 SCA Report (n 30) 24 (Panama). 46 May 2024 SCA Report (n 15) 37 (Sri Lanka). 47 Ibid. 48 Ibid, 31 (Portugal). 49 SCA Report March 2019 (n 27) 23 (Ghana). 50 October 2021 SCA Report (n 34) 16-17 (Palestine). 51 October 2022 SCA Report (n 34) 25 (Niger). 52 March 2017 SCA Report (n 34) 12 (Niger). 53 Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, Subcommittee on Accreditation, Report and Recommendations of the Virtual Session of the Sub-Committee on Accreditation, Online, 7-18 December 2020 <https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Countries/NHRI/GANHRI/SCA_Report_December_2020__24012021_-_En.pdf> (‘December 2020 SCA Report’) 21 (Mauritania). 54 May 2024 SCA Report (n 15) 45 (India). 55 Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, Subcommittee on Accreditation, Report and Recommendations of the Session of the Sub-Committee on Accreditation, Online, 25-29 September 2023, Geneva, 23-27 October 2023 <https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/countries/nhri/ganhri/SCA-Report-Second-Session-2023-ENnew.pdf> (‘October 2023 SCA Report’) 23 (Moldova). 10 Gender Equality and the Paris Principles