Chapter I: Amendments to the Law on the Establishment of the National Institution for Human Rights 1. In order to complement the efforts of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, King of Bahrain, may God protect him, which were launched by establishing the NIHR on November 10, 2009, by virtue of the Royal Decree No. 46 of 2009, which was amended by the Royal Decree No. 28 of 2012, and the enactment of Law No. 26 of 2014 on the Establishment of NIHR, in order to create a genuine legal guarantee, provide complete independence for the NIHR, and grant it further mandates and powers in line with the Paris principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights. 2. A  ccordingly, in order to obtain permanent and effective membership in the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI), through which NIHR can participate actively in the Human Rights Council sessions, meetings of the treaty bodies, special procedures, sub-committees and task groups and forces, and speak as an official institution of the Kingdom that aims at the promotion and protection of human rights, on July 16, 2015, NIHR applied for accreditation to the Sub-Committee on Accreditation (SCA), which is affiliated to GANHRI. SCA is concerned with receiving national institutions applications for accreditation status. NIHR application was formally accepted on November 25, 2015. The consideration of NIHR application was scheduled on May 9, 2016 during the informal meeting of SCA. SCA requested NIHR to submit a report entitled “Statement of compliance with the Paris principles concerned with national human rights institutions”, which should include a number of points related to NIHR foundation, independence, organization structure, working methods, terms of reference, general responsibilities and relationship with the authorities and bodies concerned with human rights. 3. NIHR sent the statement of compliance with the Paris Principles to SCA four months prior to the date scheduled for consideration of its application, according to the accreditation requirements. In turn, SCA issued a brief report on the compliance statement, in which it identified a number of issues, which it deemed important to focus on and incorporate in the applicable law to comply with the accreditation requirements. SCA communicated with NIHR Board of Commissioners on the date scheduled for consideration of the application for accreditation in May 2016 to clarify several issues. 4. In the light of the information provided by NIHR, and the discussions that took place between the Board of Commissioners and SCA, SCA issued its final report containing its recommendations, which was officially released on August 2, 2016. According to this report, NIHR obtained the accreditation status (B). 9