Part I NHRIs and the Paris Principles • ensuring that offices and facilities are physically accessible to persons with disabilities94 and all gender identities95 • providing information in oral and written form, in simple language, in minority languages and in forms accessible to people with visual and hearing impairment • opening offices outside the capital, in regional and district locations96 • providing mobile services and clinics to reach people in remote locations • having members and staff who are drawn from and have lived experience of minority groups, are female and are able to communicate well with children and with older people • using appropriate technology to facilitate access and communications. Hmong women and child in Mae Salong, Thailand. UN Photo by Kibae Park, reproduced under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license. 3.5.2. Accountability97 The Paris Principles do not have a specific provision on accountability but every organisation and individual needs to be accountable for performance. For NHRIs, there are legal accountability consequences that come from being State institutions established by law, as well as moral accountability consequences of being human rights organisations. As State institutions under the constitution or legislation, NHRIs have reporting and accountability obligations to parliaments. They are established under the law and so parliaments are their founders. The Paris Principles contain general provisions by which NHRIs should report to parliaments but they do not make specific provision for annual accountability reports.98 Most establishing laws, however, require NHRIs to report annually to the parliament on their activities and achievements. 94 See APF manual on human rights and disability at www.asiapacificforum.net/resources/human-rights-and-disability-manualnhris, s10.2. 95 See APF manual on sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics at www.asiapacificforum.net/resources/manualsogi-and-sex-charactersitics, s8.2. 96 The Paris Principles provide specifically for NHRIs to have the power to “set up local or regional sections to assist it in discharging its functions. See ‘Methods of operation’, para. (e). 97 The accountability requirements of NHRIs are discussed in chapter 18 of this manual. 98 Paris Principles, ‘Competence and responsibilities’, para. 3(a). Chapter 3: The Paris Principles | 25