NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS AS A HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION MECHANISM: THE CASES OF THE OMBUDSMAN AND HUMAN RIGHTS AND EQUALITY INSTITUTION OF TURKEY According to Article 12(2) of TIHEK Law, TIHEK Board consists of 11 members. Members are directly appointed by the President instead of election through a procedure affording all guarantees required for the pluralistic representation of CSOs operating in the fight against discrimination. Article 12(3) of TIHEK Law on the procedure of selection provides that the circumstance will be announced by the Institution to the public by appropriate means of communication prior to the expiry of the term of office of the members and applications as well as candidate notifications will be lodged before the Office of the President. However, the amendment made by the Decree Law (DL) No. 703 to Article 10(6) of TIHEK Law in 2018 removed the four-years of term of office from the text of the Law.43 Therefore, the post of membership is not conditional upon any term of office anymore and a member can only be appointed as per Article 12(3) to replace a resigning member or a member dismissed by the executive body on certain grounds. The current regulation shows that the Office of the President is the only decision-making body for the selection of Board members. The Decree Law No. 703 removed the provision "Seven members to be selected by the Council of Ministers (...) shall be designated from among the members of civil society organizations, trade unions, social and professional organizations performing activities on human rights, academicians, lawyers, members of visual media and press, the candidates to be nominated by the experts of the field or those applying for membership." from Article 10(2) of TIHEK Law and CSOs were completely left out of the process of member appointment by not even nominating candidates. 11 people who are currently the members of TIHEK Board were appointed on March 16, 2017.44 As there is no transparent appointment process in place, it is not known how many people applied for membership, how many people were nominated, which criteria were taken into consideration while designating the members and the attention paid to the pluralistic representation of those knowledgeable and experienced about the subjects falling into the mandate of the Institution while designating the members. In the light of the aforementioned issues, affiliating the Institution to the legislative body and the development of an election process requiring qualified majority with the participation of both the governing party and opposition parties for the selection of members will render the process more compliant with international standards. It is not possible to consider the qualifications required for being a member of TIHEK Board as the objective criteria suitable for being the member of an equality institution. Selection is of great importance as the members to be appointed will work as full-time employees in the Board acting as the decision-making body of the Institution and decide on the applications filed before the Institution. Three qualifications are envisaged in Article 12(4) of TIHEK Law for being a member of the Board: fulfilling the qualifications of being a public servant, having graduated from a four-year university program and not being assigned in the management bodies of political parties. The aforementioned article envisaged the following two separate qualification before it was amended by the DL No. 703 in 2018: "Being knowledgeable and experienced on the subjects falling into the mandate of the Institution" and "Having worked for a minimum total period of ten years in public institutions and organizations, international organizations, civil society organizations or professional organizations holding the status of a public institution or the private 43 Article 149 of the Decree Law No. 703 Amending Certain Laws and Decree Laws for Adaptation to the Constitutional Amendments, the Official Gazette No. 30473-3 of July 9, 2018. 44 See the Official Gazette No. 30009 of March 16, 2017. 25