Examples of communities who have engaged in a HRCLD process in the Asia Pacific region include: 1. Geographical communities where specific economic, social and culture rights issues were significant. 2. National sector communities such as i) people with disabilities, and ii) those with experience of mental illness. 3. Geographical areas with a specific focus on a sector group such as i) children and young people, and ii) refugee and asylum seekers. 4. A sector group such as indigenous peoples from several different geographical and indigenous communities across a country. All of these communities faced challenging human rights issues. The ‘selection’ process can also vary – occurring through existing relationships, as direct approach to or from a community, and in response to a general ‘call-out’ for communities who may wish to be involved. Office of the Ombudsman of Samoa Ofisa o Le Komesina Sulufaiga When they wanted to identify communities to take part in addressing family violence, the Office invited villages who had participated in the initial consultations of the Inquiry into Family Violence. Communities were also identified by size, and whether they had existing family violence bylaws or not. Of the six villages included, three were small and three were larger. Three had family violence bylaws and three didn’t. While the outcome for the Office was to implement the recommendations of the Family Violence Inquiry, they used a HRCLD process to address the issues raised. How did the community of Vanuanui become engaged in a HRCLD process? Clean drinking water was difficult to access, and oil had been observed amongst the mangroves impacting on the mud crab populations. The people of Vanuanui believed that one of the causes was the large scale commercial logging of indigenous forests that had begun several years earlier in hills behind the community. The representatives explained how the influx of cash from logging had enabled the building of good roads and some families had been able to construct houses that were more resilient to the weather they had begun to experience. They also explained that the situation was causing division among families in what “used to be the happiest place to live”. After an assessment of these concerns and further discussions with community representatives, the NHRI realised that while certain matters could be dealt with through the complaints process, the main issues were systemic and deeply entrenched. A period of engagement between Vanuanui and the NHRI followed. The community decided to take matters in their own hands and asked for the support of the NHRI to help facilitate discussions, guide processes and broker relationships with strategic ‘outsiders’ APF HRCLD Guide 33