Delivering capacity development training

Staff and Commissioners of national human rights institutions (NHRIs) work at the frontline of human rights. They inspect places of detention. They investigate allegations of abuse. They monitor issues and places of concern. They train law enforcement officials.

It is demanding work, which the APF supports through a broad range of capacity development programs and resources.

Our capacity development programs provide up-to-date knowledge and skills to assist staff undertake the core work of their NHRI, as well as promote effective approaches for working with and for vulnerable and marginalised groups.

Our approach

Our courses are delivered online in the APF Community, our online space for learning, collaboration and resources. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, we adapted our capacity development training to an online environment, enabling participants from across the Asia Pacific to take part in our courses. 

Around 30 participants are usually involved in each course. Participants are expected to contribute to weekly online discussions in the APF Community. 

Training takes place in English, with some courses also delivered in Arabic. We use expert presenters, with long-standing experience working within NHRIs, to lead the programs. We also draw on the expertise of facilitators drawn from APF members.

We ensure gender-related issues are considered in the design, delivery and content of every APF capacity development program.

All courses are evaluated to ensure that they meet the needs of our members.

We also invite our members to provide information about their training needs on an annual basis, which we use to guide the ongoing development and delivery of our capacity development program.