National Institution for Human Rights – Kingdom of Bahrain its activities, and reports directly to the chairman of the Institution for performance of his duties. The secretary is appointed by a royal decree for a period of four years, which is renewable for a similar period. The Royal Decree requires NHIR to prepare an annual report on its efforts, activities and other works. The report should include any proposals and recommendations made by the Institution within its competence, and define performance constraints, and the solutions adopted to overcome such constraints. The report should then be submitted to His Majesty the King. 6. Pursuant to the provisions of the Royal Decree on the Establishment of NIHR, on April 25, 2010, the Royal Decree No. 16 of 2010 appointing the members of the National Institution for Human Rights was issued. The Royal Decree provides for appointing Mr. Salman Ali Kamal Al-Din as chairman of the Institution, along with twenty-two members, including two vice chairmen. The Royal Decree No. 2 of 2011 was subsequently issued appointing Dr. Ahmed Abdullah Farhan as secretarygeneral of the National Institution for four years as of January 20, 2011. 7. However, given the unfortunate security events experienced by the Kingdom of Bahrain since February and March 2011 and the subsequent consequences, which had a deep impact on the members’ consensus towards the positions of the National Institution, some member resigned from the Institution. As a result, the quorum of the Institution was insufficient. However, despite this critical phase, and the practices violating human rights experienced in this phase, the Secretariat, in accordance with its prescribed powers, performed certain tasks in the field of protection of human rights during that period by receiving complaints and attempted to resolve them through communication with the competent authorities. In addition, statements on certain events that occurred at the time were issued. 8. In order to ensure the consistency of NIHR activity with Paris Principles relating to the status of national institutions in the promotion and protection of human rights, on September 11, 2012, the Royal Decree No. 28 of 2012 was issued amending certain provisions of the Royal Decree No. 46 of 2009 on the Establishment of the National Institution for Human Rights. The amendment provides for reducing the number of NIHR members to no more than fifteen members, including the chairman and vice chairman. The amendment also cancels NIHR competence to develop an integrated national strategy for the promotion and protection of human rights in the Kingdom, propose mechanisms and means to realize these rights, as well as its other competence to support human rights capacity, including technical preparation and training for workers in Bahraini institutions engaged in public freedoms, political, cultural, social, and economic rights and law enforcement in order to raise their efficiency. The amendment further stipulates that the secretary general of the Institution is to be appointed by a decision of the chairman upon the approval of the majority of its members. 9. On January 31, 2013, the Royal Decree No. 7 of 2013 was issued restructuring the National Institution for Human Rights by appointment of Mr. Ahmed Abdul Rahman Mahmoud Al-Saati; Ms. Jamila Ali Salman Nassif; Ms. Maria Antoine Elias Khoury; Dr. May Sulaiman Mohammed Al-Otaibi; Mr. Abdul Jabbar Ahmed Qareeb Allah Al-Tayeb; Dr Abdulaziz Hassan Ali Abul; Mr. Abdullah Ahmad Issa Al-Derazi; Dr. Fouzia Saeed Abdullah Saleh; and Mr. Farid Ghazi Jassim Rafee’ for four renewable years. 10. It should be noted that Paris Principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights is a set of international standards organizing and directing the work of national institutions for human rights. It 13