My colleagues and I were so fortunate to have the opportunity to work with some incredible storytellers and to see how they overcome all types of barriers in their daily lives. HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF MALAYSIA USING DIGITAL STORIES TO CONNECT WITH COMMUNITIES With social media such a dominant mode of communication, it is vital that NHRIs have the skills to produce engaging content to start community-wide conversations on key human rights issues. To support this work, the APF provided a small grant to five member institutions – the NHRIs of Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal and Samoa – to undertake a digital storytelling project. In addition, the APF provided mentoring and technical support when the digital stories were being developed, as well as during the interviewing and editing stages. The topics touched on a wide range of issues, including the rights of people with disabilities, older people and children. The stories – available on the APF’s YouTube channel – have been used by the NHRIs in their advocacy efforts with the community, government and service providers. People watched the equivalent of 275 hours of APF videos and digital stories in 2018–19. SUPPORTING NHRI MANAGEMENT In January 2019, representatives from 20 NHRIs gathered in Doha, Qatar to take part in discussions of the APF Senior Executive Officers (SEO) Network. The three-day meeting covered a wide range of practical topics on leading and managing NHRIs, including monitoring and evaluating NHRI performance, working with civil society and building staff capacity. The SEO Network also adopted the Operational Good Practice Guidelines on Commissioner and SEO Working Relationships, which had been developed from discussions at the 2017 meeting of the group. Following the meeting, a number of APF members reported on the practical steps they had undertaken to update internal NHRI policies and practices. ANNUAL REPORT 2018–19 15