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Event : Annual Meeting

1st APF Regional Workshop, 1996

Graphic: Darwin, Australia

Event starts

13 Jul 1996

Event ends

13 Jul 1996

Venue

Darwin, Australia
Australia

The 1st Regional Workshop of the APF was hosted by the Australian Human Rights Commission in 1996.


The first meeting of the APF was held in Darwin, Australia, from 8 to 10 July 1996. The national human rights commissions of Australia, India, Indonesia and New Zealand, attended the workshop. The Philippines Commission on Human Rights which had accepted the invitation to participate was unable to attend.

The workshop discussed matters of common interest to national human rights institutions, including their independence, their functions and powers, their investigation and conciliation processes, community education and media relations.

The workshop produced a final statement - the Larrakia Declaration - and agreed to the establishment of the APF.

As part of the Declaration, APF members agreed to respond to requests from governments in the region for assistance in the establishment and development of national institutions.

APF members also agreed to provide mutual support, co-operation and joint activity through:

  • Information exchanges
  • Training and development for Commission members and staff
  • Development of joint positions on issues of common concern
  • Undertaking joint projects
  • Sharing expertise
  • Periodical regional meetings
  • Specialist regional seminars on common themes and needs
  • Responding promptly and effectively to requests from other national institutions to investigate violations of the human rights of their nationals present in a country that has a national institution.

Meeting papers

Overview

Concluding Statement


Image credits

  1. Darwin, Australia - Ben Ashmole, Flickr; http://bit.ly/1WPL1II