NIHR Participates in the APF 26th Annual Meeting
The National institution for Human Rights (NIHR), represented by Dr. Hooreya Hassan, Member to the Council of Commissioners, and Counselor-at-law Yasser Shaheen, NIHR Secretary-General, has participated in the Asia-Pacific Forum (APF) 2-day 26th annual meeting, which was held virtually with the participation of 25 national institutions in the Asia-Pacific, in addition to representatives of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (HCHR) and the Global Alliance for National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI).
The meeting was opened by Prof. Rosalind Croucher, President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, where she welcomed the participating institutions and the participants. She explained that this is the second meeting to be held virtually due to Covid-19 and hoped that it would be held with personal attendance next year. Then, Mr. Kieran Fitzpatrick, APF Executive Director, presented APF performance report and a report on gender equality strategy, which aims at supporting APF members to identify priorities, focus on human rights for women and girls, support gender mainstreaming processes for national human rights institutions between APF members and mainstream consideration for gender perspective in the APF Secretariat operations. The participants also adopted audited final accounts and the updated membership application form.
During the meeting, several elections were held for positions in the APF, in addition to the election of APF candidate for chairing the Global Alliance for National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) and the elections for the position of APF Vice-President after expiration of the membership of the Korean Commission representative. The election of the alternative member representing APF in the GANHRI was postponed to the next meeting. At the end of the meeting, representatives of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Southeast Asia made a presentation on national human rights institutions and humanitarian work.
