ABOUT THE PROJECT

The Australian Research Council and the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions are jointly funding a project which is designed to study the role of the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (APF) in promoting human rights throughout the region.  The Project is based at the Australian Human Rights Centre at the Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales, Sydney. 

APF is a regional organisation whose members are the representatives of national human rights institutions (NHRIs).  APF currently has 14 full members, from the national institutions of the following countries: Afghanistan, Australia, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor Leste.  It also has 3 Associate members: Palestine, Qatar, Maldives.  The project will study the role of the APF as a network that promotes the domestic implementation of international human rights law through the NHRIs of the Asia Pacific. 

The APF network facilitates the exchange of information between members, forges links between staff in different national institutions and disseminates technological expertise.  The Project will examine the APF’s impact on the capacity of NHRIs in the region to fulfil their mandates to promote and protect human rights. It will also examine the impact of the Advisory Council of Jurists, which was established by the APF in 1998 in order to develop regional jurisprudence on international human rights law. 

This year, the University of New South Wales Law Masters Programme includes a course ‘Human Rights in Asia: National Human Rights Institutions in the Asia Pacific Region,’ taught by Mr Brian Burdekin, former Australian Human Rights Commissioner, former Special Advisor on National Institutions to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Visiting Professor at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Sweden.  Students of the course have the opportunity of contributing to the work of the Project.

The project commenced in 2008 and will run for three years. Professor Andrew Byrnes, Associate Professor Andrea Durbach and Catherine Renshaw are the Research Team. The Team aims to visit and conduct a detailed case study of one Commission from each of the sub-regions of  the Asia Pacific: SUHAKAM from the ASEAN region, the National Human Rights Commission of Nepal from the SAARC region, the Jordan National Centre for Human Rights from the region of West Asia, New Zealand from the Pacific and South Korea from East Asia.  The team will attend the APF Annual Meetings and conduct interviews with participants and stakeholders such as members of civil society, United Nations representatives  and national government officials.

PUBLICATIONS

Andrea Durbach,Catherine Renshaw and Andrew Byrnes A Tongue But no Teeth? The Emergence of a New Human Rights Mechanism in the Asia Pacific Region   (forthcoming June 2009 Sydney law Review)

Catherine Renshaw, Andrew Byrnes and Andrea Durbach - Implementing human rights in the Pacific through the work of national human rights institutions: the experience of Fiji, [2008] UNSWLRS 66. (forthcoming June 2009 Victoria University of Wellington law Review)

Andrew Byrnes, Andrea Durbach and Catherine Renshaw Joining the Club: The Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions, the Paris Principles, and the advancement of human rights protection in the region (2008) 14(1) Australian Journal of Human Rights

Catherine Renshaw and Katrina Taylor Promoting and Protecting Human Rights in the Asia Pacific; the relationship between National Human Rights Institutions and Non-Governmental Organisations (2008) 17(2) Human Rights Defender.

ACTIVITIES

September 2009 - Catherine Renshaw and Kieren Fitzpatrick presented their paper NHRIs in the Asia Pacific region at a workshop jointly organised by Harvard Law School / New York University Law School. 

August 2009 - The team attended the 14^th Annual Conference of the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions, held in Amman, Jordan.  Jordan is one of the Project team’s case studies from the West Asian region, and interviews were conducted with commissioners and staff from the Jordan National Centre for Human Rights, the Jordanian government, civil society representatives and journalists.

July 2009 - the Project team presented its research on regional human rights mechanisms and the creation of national human rights commissions in the Pacific, titled Regional and National Human Rights Protection: Creating a New Model in the Pacific, at the Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International law, held in Wellington, New Zealand.

July 2009 - On 22nd July 2009, the Project team participated in a workshop on NHRIs hosted by Melbourne University: 'Creating change?: NHRIs (In)Action in the Asia-Pacific Region.' The team presented its research on SUHAKAM and the engagement of civil society in the processes of the International Coordinating Committee of Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Civil Society (ICC). 

The National Human Rights Commission of Malaysia, civil society and the Malaysian government; exploring the dynamics of change

May 2009 - Andrew Byrnes presented “Asia’s Human Rights Comité des Sages? The Advisory Council of Jurists of the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions”, at the Sixth Asian Law Institute Conference, Dynamics of Change in Asia, University of Hong Kong, 29-30 May 2009. In this presentation he outlined the role of the ACJ and the preliminary work of the project in exploring the operation of the Council, and the use made of its output by NHRIs, governments, and advocates.

April 2009 - On 27 April, the Project Team attended a regional workshop held in Apia, Samoa, on the Establishment of National Human Rights Mechanisms in the Pacific. The workshop was organised by the Asia Pacific Forum and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Participants included representatives of the governments of Samoa, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and representatives of human rights commissions from New Zealand, Australia, Maldives, the Philippines and Timor Leste. Participants drafted and endorsed 'the Samoa Declaration,' which recognises the importance of Pacific states taking necessary measures to establish NHRIs in accordance with the Paris Principles.

December 2008 - Catherine Renshaw presented a paper: "The Globalisation Paradox and the Implementation of International Human Rights: the Function of Transnational Networks in Combating Trafficking in the ASEAN Region" at the 25th Annual Law and Society Australia and New Zealand Conference held at the University of Sydney from 10 to 12 December 2008.

November 2008 - The Project team drafted a sumission to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade Inquiry into Human Rights Mechanisms and the Asia-Pacific; Inquiry into Human Rights Mechanisms and the Asia-Pacific.

October 2008 - the Project Team visited the National Human Rights Commission of Nepal, in Kathmandu. The Team conducted interviews with present and former Commissioners and staff of the Commission, civil society leaders, members of government, the legal profession, the police force and representatives of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Development Programme.

September 2008 - Implementing human rights in the Pacific through the work of national human rights institutions: the experience of Fiji, Renshaw, Byrnes, Durbach, [2008] UNSWLRS 66.

August 2008 - Catherine Renshaw and Katrina Taylor Promoting and Protecting Human Rights in the Asia Pacific; the relationship between National Human Rights Institutions and Non-Governmental Organisations (2008) 17(2) Human Rights Defender.

July 2008 - The Project team attended the 13^th Annual Meeting of the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions in Kuala Lumpur, 28-31 July 2008.  The team  conducted interviews with Commissioners of SUHAKAM, academics, members of civil society, NGOs and past and present members of the Malaysian government who are, or have been, involved with SUHAKAM.

http://www.asiapacificforum.net/about/annual-meetings/13th-malaysia-2008

June 2008 - Associate Professor Andrea Durbach and Catherine Renshaw presented their paper: “A Tongue But no Teeth? The Emergence of a New Human Rights Mechanism in the Asia Pacific Region” at the 16^th Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Lawin Canberra, 26-28 June 2008

May 2008 - “Joining the Club”: The Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions, the Paris Principles, and the advancement of human rights protection in the region” was presented by Professor Andrew Byrnes at the 5^th Asian Law Institute Conference in Singapore, 22-23 May 2008.  To view the paper: [2008] UNSWLRS 39, available at http://law.bepress.com/unswwps/flrps08/art39/

April 2008 - The project team attended the “Strategies for the Future: Protecting Rights in the Pacific” conference held in Apia, Samoa, 27-29 April; http://www.interights.org/pacific-2008/index.htm

Contact

The members of the project team at the AHRC are:

Andrew Byrnes, Professor of International Law at the University of New South Wales

Andrea Durbach, Director of the Australian Human Rights Centre and member of the APF’s Advisory Council of Jurists

Maria Herminia Graterol, a Research Associate of the Australian Human Rights Centre.

Catherine Renshaw, a Research Fellow at the  Australian Human Rights Centre.

For more information about the project please contact us at:

Phone: +61 2 9385 9652

Email: apfproject@unsw.edu.au

Links

The Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Commissions  

National Human Rights Institutions Forum

Australian Human Rights Commission

Malaysian Human Rights Commission, SUHAKAM

National Human Rights Commission of Nepal