B. T he U nited N ations and national human rights institutions 1. A brief history In 1946, the Economic and Social Council considered the issue of national institutions, two years before the Universal Declaration of Human Rights became the “common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations”. Member States were invited to consider establishing information groups or local human rights committees. In 1978, the Commission on Human Rights10 organized a seminar which resulted in draft guidelines for the structure and functioning of institutions. The Commission on Human Rights and the General Assembly subsequently endorsed the guidelines. The General Assembly invited States to take appropriate steps to establish these institutions, where they did not already exist, and requested the Secretary-General to submit a detailed report on NHRIs. In 1991, the first International Workshop on National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights took place in Paris. A key outcome was the Principles relating to the status of national institutions (the Paris Principles, see annex I below). Today the Paris Principles are broadly accepted as the test of an institution’s legitimacy and credibility, and have become part of the human rights lexicon. The 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna was a watershed for NHRIs. For the first time NHRIs compliant with the Paris Principles were formally recognized as important and constructive actors in the promotion and protection of human rights, and their establishment and strengthening formally encouraged (A/CONF.157/23, Part I, para. 36). The 1993 World Conference also consolidated the Network of National Institutions, established in Paris in 1991, and laid the groundwork for its successor, the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. In 2005 the Commission on Human Rights, in its resolution 2005/74 (see annex IX below), reaffirmed the importance of establishing and strengthening independent, pluralistic NHRIs consistent with the Paris Principles and of strengthening cooperation among them. It accorded: ■■ Speaking rights to “A” status NHRIs under all its agenda items; ■■ Dedicated seating to NHRIs; and ■■ The right to NHRIs to issue documents under their own symbol number. Moreover, it requested the Secretary-General to continue to provide assistance for meetings of the International Coordinating Committee, and international and regional meetings of NHRIs.11 The Handbook refers at times to the “Commission on Human Rights” in relation to the period before April 2006. The Human Rights Council replaced the Commission on Human Rights that month (see General Assembly resolution 60/251). The Human Rights Council, while different in membership and in its responsibilities, also assumed ���all mandates, mechanisms, functions and responsibilities of the Commission on Human Rights” with the requirement to “improve and rationalize” them where necessary. 11 These arrangements were later integrated in Human Rights Council resolution 5/1. 10 7