NIHR participates in 25th APF Annual Meeting
Ms. Maria Khoury, Chairperson of the National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR), participated in the 25th annual meeting of Asia-Pacific Forum (APF), which was held remotely from the APF headquarters in Sydney, Australia, with a number of members of the NIHR Council of Commissioners and Secretary-General. The meeting was attended by members of all national human rights institutions in the Asia-Pacific region. The meeting was opened by Mrs. Rosalind Croucher, Head of the Forum, President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, who welcomed the participants. Then, a movie was displayed summarizing the APF’s work last year.
During her intervention, Ms. Khoury explained the role played by the NIHR in following up the precautionary measures taken by the Kingdom of Bahrain in preventing the spread of Coronavirus (Covid-19) and their impact on practicing human rights as well as their impact on expatriate workers’ rights, and the NIHR’s readiness to share its expertise with APF members in this area and provide them with the necessary assistance, in order for everyone to obtain their right to health and medical care.
During the meeting, the APF’s budget was reviewed and approved, stating the APF’s role in the membership of the Office of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) and preparations for holding GANHRI annual meeting remotely next October after it was postponed last March due to the Coronavirus pandemic, as well as the ongoing consultations to schedule a date for the remote meeting of the Sub-Committee on Accreditation (SCA) before the end of this year.
Afterwards, elections were conducted for the membership of the APF Governance Committee between national institutions with accreditation status (A), which consists of five members, where each candidate introduced themselves and what they could offer in the next two years to support the APF efforts and work. The results of elections announced that the President of the Australian Human Rights Commission Mrs. Rosalind Croucher won the presidency of the APF Governance Committee for a second term, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea won the position of Vice-President and the National Human Rights Commissions of India, Qatar and Malaysia won the membership of the three seats in the APF Governance Council.
