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 the APF's five-year strategic plan. We incorporate a focus on gender issues into all aspects of our work.

Our goal is to support our members in their vital work to promote and protect the human rights of women and girls.

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

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.

In addition, the APF encourages our members to incorporate the principle of gender equality within the work of their institutions, including equal representation at all levels of staffing and in the appointment of Commission members.

Our approach is guided by the APF Gender Policy, which was adopted in 2011. 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.

Our members have made promoting and protecting the human rights of women and girls a priority in their respective countries, as part of the APF Regional Action Plan on the Human Rights of Women and Girls.

This complements similar commitments made by NHRIs globally under the Amman Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted in 2012 at the 11th International Conference of National Human Rights Institutions.

APF members are invited to report annually on their work to promote and protect the rights of women and girls.