Suraina Pasha, APF Secretariat
May 2008: Suraina Pasha coordinates the APF’s Regional Training program and says that a key factor in delivering effective training for member institutions is to regularly evaluate and review the service.
Providing training and capacity building programs for national human rights institutions in the Asia Pacific region is a key role of the APF Secretariat.
In the last year, the APF has run 10 institution-specific and sub-regional training programs involving approximately 350 participants from across its membership.
Suraina Pasha coordinates the APF’s Regional Training program and says that a key factor in delivering effective training for APF members is to regularly evaluate and review the service.
“Whether it’s through structured questionnaires sent to APF members, focused interviews or other approaches, the feedback we receive from our member institutions is what guides the direction of our training program,” she says.
In 2006 the APF contracted a Geneva-based international human rights organisation to carry out the first holistic assessment of the training needs of its member institutions.
The report made a number of recommendations, including focusing on complaints handling, human rights monitoring, public inquiries, the international human rights system, human rights education, as well as training on common human rights themes and providing training and support for Commissioners.
“Since that report was endorsed by the Forum Council in 2006, the APF has developed and run a number of new training programs on torture prevention, national inquiries, human rights defenders and the international human rights system,” said Suraina.
“We are also developing a training program specifically for Commissioners, which will be held later this year.”
With 17 member institutions, the APF training calendar remains consistently full. In the next month, training programs will be run in Qatar (NHRIs and human rights defenders), Indonesia (National inquiries) and the Maldives (Media and communications).
The primary goals of the APF’s training program are to strengthen institutional capacity, share expertise and develop practical skills that will be directly relevant to the day-to-day work of national human rights institutions.
“The feedback and evaluations we receive from the training workshops indicates that they are meeting those aims,” said Suraina.
“It’s also incredibly rewarding when participants then go on to organise workshops for other colleagues in their NHRI, or those working in partner organisations, to share new skills and ideas and to continue that learning process.”
Prior to taking up her current role in 2006, Suraina headed up the Policy and Research Division of the Malaysian Human Rights Commission.
“As a former staff member of a national human rights institution, I certainly appreciate the need for good human rights training. That’s why I'm delighted to have the opportunity to be a part of the process of providing training to the member institutions of the APF.”
