11th APF Annual Meeting, 2006

The Vice-President of the Republic of the Fiji Islands, H.E. Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi, opened the 11th Annual Meeting of the Asia Pacific Forum (APF), held in Suva, 31 July – 3 August 2006.

Hosted by the Fiji Human Rights Commission, the program included a one-day closed session of the Forum Council and a three-day meeting open to observers from governments, non-government organisations and United Nations and other international organisations.

A major theme of the meeting was international labour standards and the role of national human rights institutions. Discussion focused on incorporating international labour standards into national codes and the application of these standards to issues of trafficking and migration.

The meeting also included an interactive dialogue between representatives from national human rights institutions and non-government organisations on strategies to protect and promote the rights of human rights defenders.

An International Training Seminar for Human Rights Defenders, conducted by the International Service for Human Rights and the Fiji Human Rights Commission, was held in parallel with the APF annual meeting.

A highlight of the final day of the meeting was the presentation of the Advisory Council of Jurists' interim report on the right to education, which was followed by a panel discussion and presentations from experts in the field.

Outcomes of the 11th Annual Meeting include:

Membership

• Forum Councillors welcomed proposals to strengthen the accreditation guidelines of the International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions (ICC) and recommended that the APF membership procedures be reviewed once the ICC guidelines were finalised.
• The application from the National Society for Human Rights of Saudi Arabia for membership of the APF was deferred pending the review of APF membership procedures.

Advisory Council of Jurists

• Presentation of the ACJ interim report on the right to education.
• The Forum Council agreed to develop a reference on the human rights dimension of the right to environment.

Management

• The Fiji Human Rights Commission was elected Chairperson of the Forum Council. The National Human Rights Commission of Mongolia and the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission were elected to the two positions of Deputy Chairpersons.

12th Annual Meeting

• The Forum Council accepted the offer of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission to host the 12th Annual Meeting in 2007.