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The Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI; known until 2016 as the International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions or International Coordinating Committee, abbreviated ICC) is a global network of national human rights institutions (NHRIs) which coordinates the relationship between NHRIs and the United Nations human rights system, and is unique as the only non-UN body whose internal accreditation system, based on compliance with the 1993 Paris Principles, grants access to UN committees. Institutions accredited by the Subcommittee for Accreditation (SCA) of GANHRI with "A status", meaning full compliance with the Paris Principles, are usually accorded speaking rights and seating at human rights treaty bodies and other UN organs, mainly to the Human Rights Council. GANHRI representatives often present statements on behalf of individual NHRIs or the regional groups.
GANHRI is constituted as a non-profit entity under Swiss law, and has one member of staff representing it at the United Nations Office at Geneva. Secretariat support is provided to GANHRI by the National Institutions and Regional Mechanisms (NIRM) Unit of the Field Operations and Technical Cooperation Division of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).[1] Additional work devolves on the NHRI elected to chair the network, currently chaired since 2016 by Beate Rudolf from the German Institute for Human Rights, and on the regional chairs of GANHRI's four regional networks.
GANHRI holds annual general meetings (usually in Geneva in March, coinciding with the UN Human Rights Council session) and a biennial thematic international conference; the tenth conference, hosted in 2010 by the Scottish Human Rights Commission, was on the theme of business and human rights.[2] The last International Conference to date was held in Merida (Mexico) in October 2015 and focused on the Sustainable Development Goals and on the topic of: "What Role for National Human Rights Institutions?"[3]