Gender Equality

Promoting gender equality

Women and girls in all countries across the Asia Pacific are at risk of serious violations of their human rights, such as gender-based violence and harassment.

Entrenched roles, attitudes and stereotypes also mean that many experience poverty, discrimination and unequal access to services and participation in community life.

Promoting gender equality is a core part of our five-year strategic plan. We incorporate a focus on gender issues into all aspects of our work, and support our members to mainstream gender and protect the human rights of women, girls, and people of diverse gender identities.

We do this through delivering a capacity development program for our members, providing advice and expertise on gender mainstreaming, supporting our members with gender audits, and highlighting gender-related issues in our capacity assessments with members.


National Human Rights Institutions have a powerful role to play in terms of promoting accountability"

Rashida Manjoo, former UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women


Our approach is guided by the APF Gender Strategy. We have established a Gender Focal point within the APF secretariat and developed a robust monitoring and evaluation framework to chart our progress on an annual basis.

We encourage our members to incorporate gender equality within the work of their institutions, towards achieving equal representation at all levels of staffing and in the appointment of Commission members. Our members are invited to report annually on their work to mainstream gender and promote gender equality.

We have also entered into partnerships with UN Women and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to provide additional support and technical assistance for our members.

Resources

Advancing human rights in our region