United Nations Development Programme
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN's global development network.
One of its key areas of work is to promote democratic governance, including by helping countries expand access to justice, tackle corruption and advance human rights.
As part of this effort, UNDP works to help establish and strengthen national human rights institutions (NHRIs) in the Asia Pacific region and other parts of the globe.
UNDP is a key partner of the APF and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in delivering an innovative capacity assessment program for APF member institutions.
This initiative supports NHRIs 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, including in areas such as investigation; complaint handling; legal analysis and policy advice; and human rights education.
Since 2008, projects have been conducted with the national human rights institutions of Malaysia, the Maldives, Thailand, Jordan, Palestine and Afghanistan.
UNDP also establishes long-term capacity development partnerships with NHRIs. In our region, this includes collaborative projects with:
- Bangladesh (UNDP Project 2010-2015)
- Maldives (UN Joint Project 2010-2013)
- Nepal (OHCHR-UNDP Project 2009-2011)
- Sri Lanka (UN Joint Project 2009-2011)
- Timor Leste (OHCHR-UNDP Project 2010-2014)
The website of UNDP Asia and Pacific is: http://www.undp.org/asia/
