Report of the Conference
Muhammad Nurkhoiron
Vice Chairperson, Indonesian Commission on Human Rights
Muhammad is a Commissioner and the Vice Chairperson of the Indonesian National Commission for
Human Rights (KOMNAS HAM). He is the Coordinator of KOMNAS HAM’s Sub-Commission on Public
Education and Awareness (2014 to present). He is also the Commission’s Special Rapporteur for Minority
Rights (LGBTI is a minority rights issue); and he is the initiator and coordinator for human rights cities.
Muhammad is also responsible for the Inquiry for Alleged Gross Violations of Human Rights (Shaman’s
slaughter case at East Jave 1998–99). Muhammad currently serves on the Board of the Desantara
Foundation working on minoirity and cultural rights (2010–present). From 2007–2008 he was a Member
of the Steering Committee – Networking for Monitoring Religious Freedom in West Java. From 2005–
2010 he was the Executive Director, Desantara Foundation and from 2006–2007 was on the Steering
Committee of the National Alliance for Penal Codes Reformation. From 2004–2005 Muhammad was the
Project Director for the Advocacy and Media Campaign on Minority Rights.
Pip Dargan
Deputy Director, Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions
Pip is the Deputy Director of the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (APF). Pip
helped establish the APF Secretariat in 1996 and has been responsible for the management and
implementation of APF human rights programmes including human trafficking, women’s rights, internally
displaced persons, sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics. Pip played a key
coordinating and advocacy role at the UN Human Rights Council and the Commission on the Status of
Women relating to the formal and independent recognition of national human rights institutions. She is
the APF’s Gender Focal Point with responsibility for mainstreaming gender equality into the operations
and work of the APF. Pip has a range of strategic and managerial responsibilities associated with the
operations of the APF secretariat. Prior to the APF, Pip held various positions at the Australian Human
Rights Commission including in the areas of corporate services, investigation and conciliation, public
education and human rights policy. In 2009, Pip was appointed by the then Australian Minister of Foreign
Affairs as a panel member to provide advice to the Government on its Human Rights Grant Scheme.
Pip continued in this role until the Scheme was discontinued in February 2014. From 1984–1987, Pip
worked in the Australian Public Service and held positions at the Constitutional Commission, the Inquiry
into Justice Lionel Murphy and the Department of Special Minister of State. She holds a Bachelor of Arts
degree from the University of Sydney, majoring in Politics and History.
Professor Emeritus Vitit Muntarbhorn
UN Independent Expert on Protection Against Violence and Discrimination based on Sexual Orientation
and Gender Identity
Vitit was designated in September 2016 as the first UN Independent Expert on violence and
discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity by the Human Rights Council. Vitit is an
international law Professor. He was educated in the United Kingdom obtaining his undergraduate and
graduate law degrees from Oxford University. He also holds a degree on European law from the Free
University of Brussels. He is currently a Professor Emeritus of law at the Chulalongkorn University in
Bangkok, having taught international law, human rights, the law of regional organisations, migration and
refugee law, child rights, international humanitarian law and European Union law. He was awarded the
UNESCO Human Rights Education Prize in 2004.
Vitit has served on many United Nations bodies. He was formally the United Nations Special Rapporteur
on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. He has also been Special
Rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child
Pornography. He was the Chair of the International Commission of Inquiry on the Ivory Coast in 2011
and was one of the Commissioners of the Independent International Commission of inquiry on Syria
from 2012 to 2016. Vitit has extensive experience in research, policy development and advocacy in the
field of sexual orientation and gender identity. He was the Co-Chairperson of the drafting committee
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