Preface: Developments Regarding the Activities of the National Institution for Human Rights 1. As an extension of the reformist ventures of His Majesty the King, may God protect him, related to the promotion and protection of human rights in the Kingdom of Bahrain, and in response to the recommendations reached by the Sub-Committee on Accreditation (SCA) in tandem with the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI), which emphasized the importance for processes of consultation and appointment in the National Institution to be transparent and expansive, and to include clear and unified standards for evaluating the credentials of all the qualified candidates, where the Sub-Committee deemed it important to confer an official stamp on the process of selecting and appointing the decision making body at the National Institution, and it also deemed it important for the Establishing Law of the Institution to provide that among the members of the decision making body, there should be full-time members, given that this would foster the independence of the national institutions without there being perceived or actual conflict of interests, while achieving stability in the tenure of its members, and providing regular and proper guidance to its officers, and ensuring continuous and effective implementation of NIHR tasks. 2. Accordingly, the Decree-Law Number (20) of 2016 was enacted, and it amended a number of clauses provided in Law Number (26) of 2014 related to the establishment of the National Institution for Human Rights, for purposes of creating a genuine legal guarantee ensuring the independence of the Institution, while granting it increased jurisdictions and powers in a manner consistent with principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles) related to the standing of the national institutions for promoting and protecting human rights, while augmenting their international classification thereby embodying the commitment of the Kingdom to protecting and respecting human rights.1 3. Among the most prominent amendments provided in the Decree-Law Number (20) of 2016 by amending some of the provisions of Law Number (26) of 2014 establishing the National Institution for Human Rights, is the presence of full-time members of the Council of Commissioners. In this regard, Article 1 defines the full-time member as one who is free to perform the responsibilities of his job in the Institution and is not committed to performing work or holding another occupation during his tenure, and what is provided in Article Number (4) concerning the rules of the membership insofar as the permissibility of selecting the members of the Council of Commissioners from among members of the legislative branch of government, provided that they do not constitute a majority of the Council of Commissioner, and that their participation is in discussion without having voting power. The same Article provided that the mechanism, procedures and parameters of selecting the members of the Council of Commissioners are issued by virtue of a Royal decree in order to promote the transparency of the consultations and appointment. 1 Report of the National Institution for Human Rights, by visiting the following website: www.nihr.org.bh 11