APF Facilitators’ Network (AFN)
Jakarta Guidelines for Human Rights
Facilitation
Preamble
In 2017, and as a result of feedback from its members, the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human
Rights Institutions (APF) initiated a programme to establish the APF Facilitators Network (AFN). It
was envisaged that the AFN would build facilitation capacity and capability within NHRIs and
across the region.
As a first step, 20 NHRIs took part in a blended learning programme involving both online and
face-to-face development. The programme aimed to:
• build participants’ understanding and practice of facilitation as it related to adult-centred
learning and human rights education, and
• initiate a region-wide network of human rights facilitators.
The face-to-face workshop component of the programme was held in Jakarta in December 2017.
At this workshop facilitators began to identify the elements of facilitation and to develop a set of
guiding principles for effective human rights facilitation. . This was the beginning of the Jakarta
Guidelines for Human Rights Facilitation (the Guidelines).
Since this initial programme, facilitators have delivered initiatives in their own NHRIs and
countries. Experiences and resources have been shared online in the APF Learning Community,
and at a face-to-face network meeting in Bangkok. The Guidelines have been further developed
at the Bangkok meeting and through subsequent sub-regional contributions. They are a work in
progress.
Defining human rights facilitation
Effective facilitation seeks to promote genuine and sustained transformation in the way people
think, form opinions, make decisions and act. This process is most likely to occur when
participants at the centre of the learning process.
Human rights facilitation therefore is a participant-centred practice that encourages an
understanding of human rights norms, principles, values and mechanisms; develops attitudes and
values that uphold human rights and encourages action toward human rights outcomes.
Purpose of human rights facilitation
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