Building Human Rights Communities: A Guide for National
Human Rights Institutions in the Asia Pacific Region
Building Human Rights Communities: A Guide for National Human Rights Institutions in the Asia
Pacific Region is a resource designed to assist NHRIs in developing self-reliant and respectful
communities capable of identifying, documenting, and monitoring human rights violations.
This comprehensive manual provides guidance on creating sustainable strategies using local
knowledge and evaluating their effectiveness.
The resource supports NHRIs in fulfilling their mandate under the Paris Principles, which
include educating the public about human rights, promoting values that uphold these rights, and
encouraging actions to protect individuals from violations.
By using a HRCLD approach, NHRIs can help communities recognise and address human
rights issues by establishing frameworks and mechanisms that support them to confront these
challenges effectively.
The guide offers practical, step-by-step suggestions for facilitating this approach, including tools,
resources, and case studies from the Pacific, the Philippines and Aotearoa New Zealand. It is
complemented by an online program available on the APF’s learning platform, the APF Community.
This initiative underscores our commitment to advancing human rights by supporting NHRIs and
communities and highlights the crucial role of collaboration, innovation and local participation in
APF Annual Report 2023-24
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