You are here: Home › Support For Members › Capacity Assessment

Capacity Assessment

Supports APF members to identify the capacities they have and those they need to develop in order to effectively promote and protect human rights.

Capacity Assessment
Photo: Benjamin Lee
The Capacity Assessment program is a new initiative that supports APF member institutions to identify the capacities they have and those they need to develop in order to fulfil their mandate to promote and protect rights at the national level.

The program is jointly facilitated by the APF, the United Nations Development Programme and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

It uses a self-assessment approach to draw on the expertise and insights of those within the national human rights institution (NHRI), including Commissioners, managers and staff.

The program is also a forward-looking exercise, which explores both the current capacities of the NHRI and those that need to be developed or strengthened over the following five year period.

The report of the assessment proposes strategies to strengthen the NHRI as a whole, to develop the capacities of individual staff and to make the internal processes of the NHRI more efficient and more effective.

Feedback on the program from participating APF members has been positive and constructive.

To date, capacity assessment projects have been conducted with the:

  • Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (2011)
  • Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights (2011)
  • Jordan National Centre for Human Rights (2010)
  • National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (2010)
  • Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (2009)
  • Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (2008)

The program will also be run in 2011 with the National Human Rights Commission of Mongolia.