Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions The APF participated in an ASEAN regional dialogue held from 4-6 November 2013 on advancing the rights of women and girls and their access to justice. The dialogue brought together the NHRIs of Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Timor-Leste, as well as members of ASEAN’s human rights mechanisms. A goal of the meeting was to discuss how the key principles that underpin the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women – in particular, non-discrimination, substantive equality and the obligation of States – can be used as a framework to guide efforts at the national, regional and international levels. Discussions also focused on the ways in which NHRIs can build a greater focus on gender issues into their regular functions, such as monitoring and investigating human rights violations; advising governments on laws, policies and procedures; human rights education and awareness raising; and engaging with the international human rights system. Arab Court of Human Rights From 25-26 May 2014, the APF and West Asian NHRIs participated in a two-day meeting to discuss the rules of procedure of the new Arab Court of Human Rights. The proposal to set up a human rights court for all Arab states was first announced in November 2011 by Bahrain’s King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa. The meeting brought together more than 150 Arab human rights organisations and prominent activists, representatives from other regional human rights courts (Europe, Americas and Africa), the Arab League and the OHCHR. Manama, the capital of the Bahrain, has been chosen to host the Arab Court of Human Rights, a decision taken by the Arab League’s foreign ministers at a meeting in Cairo in September 2013. 4.3. ADVOCACY EVALUATION FINDINGS Outcome indicator Advocacy Performance rating On track The APF seeks to play an active role to support APF members at the international and regional level in the protection and promotion of human rights. One function of the APF is to advocate common policy positions adopted by the APF membership. In response to a survey question on the value of this work, as shown in Figure 11, the APF’s work with the ICC is consistently very highly valued, that its work with the UN OEWG is increasingly highly valued and that the APF’s role in the Conference of State Parties on Disability is also highly valued. The APF’s strategic focus on engaging in thematic mechanisms to promote APF-wide policy positions reflects the relatively lower value placed by members on its engagement generally with UN Human Rights Council and its mechanisms and the UN General Assembly. The APF’s focus here is rather to promote the engagement of individual NHRIs themselves rather than advocating APF-wide policy positions. In another member survey conducted in 2014, 88% of responding members indicated that they thought APF participation at ICC annual meetings was highly important. 40