32. Hence, the General Secretariat, which has a sufficient number of employees and is headed by the Secretary General, assists the Council of Commissioners to perform its mandated functions in the area of human rights promotion and protection. Three (3) general secretaries have been appointed during the ten years. 33. The percentage of women working in the General Secretariat is (58%) of the total number of employees. The NIHR’s General Secretariat has been keen to develop, enhance, and refine the skills of its employees and provide them with scientific and practical experiences. The General Secretariat has provided the staff with more than (500) internal and external training programs in the various disciplines and sectors; perhaps the most important training programs are the trainings on human rights topics, international humanitarian law, language acquisition, know-how of new developments in the field of information technology, finance and accounting, mechanism for dealing with the public, self-development, and improvement of general skills. Fifth: Awards and certificates obtained by the National Institution for Human Rights 34. Corresponding to its efforts and accomplishments in promoting human rights, the NIHR was awarded the Chaillot Prize for the Promotion of Human Rights in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region in 2014 based on the nomination and support of the embassies from the European Union States accredited to the Kingdom of Bahrain, to acknowledge and honor its distinguished role and determined efforts to advance the status of human rights in the Kingdom of Bahrain. 35. In addition, the General Secretariat of the NIHR was able to acquire the Quality Management System (ISO) certification in its updated version (ISO 9001: 2015) issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), thus becoming the first certified national human rights institution at the regional level. 36. The General Secretariat of the NIHR has also joined the United Nations Global Compact initiative as a partner. The NIHR is the first non-profit institution in the Kingdom of Bahrain to be accepted in this initiative as a result of its commitment to the ten principles of the UN Global Compact, which are based on respect for human rights, the environment, workers› rights and combating corruption. 22