New partnership will focus on human rights defenders in the Asia Pacific region
With a new Regional Action Plan on Human Rights Defenders, the national human rights institutions from the Asia Pacific region have decided to strengthen their work on human rights defenders at both national and regional levels. The national human rights institutions will improve collaboration and capacity to protect the rights of human rights defenders and to develop national and regional data on the situation of human rights defenders.
Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (APF) and Danish Institute for Human Rights will offer support to national human rights institutions in the coming years in line with APF’s Regional Action Plan on Human Rights Defenders. National human rights institutions will be able to join this regional collaboration and to use the Right to Defend Rights tool developed by Danish Institute for Human Rights. The tool offers national human rights institutions a monitoring framework for data collection and reporting on the situation of human rights defenders in their country. National human rights institutions can systematically collect data on the structural gaps in policy, legislation, mechanisms, and practices in the different contexts and co-operate with human rights defenders in their countries in the process.
Regional launch of the Right to Defend Rights tool and regional support to national human rights institutions
At an online event on 7th December 2023, APF and Danish Institute for Human Rights will launch the Right to Defend Rights tool in the Asia Pacific region.
The APF and Danish Institute for Human Rights have designed a support package to deliver technical support to national human rights institutions in the Asia Pacific region who wish to use the tool. The package will include online training and peer learning and will be available in early 2024. APF members will be invited to join.
The Right to Defend Rights monitoring framework is developed by Danish Institute for Human Rights, in collaboration with the OHCHR and an expert reference group. The tool uses human rights-based indicators to systematically assess the enabling environment for human rights defenders. The framework is anchored in the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and operationalizes the monitoring of the binding human rights obligations underpinning the declaration. The vision is that such granular assessments will form a strong basis for national actions to enhance the protection of human rights defenders and facilitate co-operation with national, regional, and international actors.