Participants from 18 National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) across the Asia Pacific have completed the new APF online course Gender Equality for NHRIs.

Held in the APF Community, the APF’s online learning and collaboration space, the course is designed to support participants to increase their knowledge and understanding of gender equality as it relates to NHRIs, and covers the main concepts of gender equality, gender analysis, mainstreaming and gender specialisation.

The course has a strong focus on developing staff knowledge and skills to analyse their NHRI operations from a gender perspective to be able to recommend and implement measures to ensure gender is considered in all areas of NHRI work.

It also focuses on developing skills and knowledge required for NHRI staff to work holistically towards promoting gender equality in the national and community contexts.

A total of 44 participants took part in the four-week course, which took place from 6 September – 1 October 2021. This included staff from APF member institutions as well as from non-member, the Ombudsman of the Cook Islands. The APF is supporting the Ombudsman with establishing an NHRI mandate and invited them to participate in the course to ensure that gender is considered from the outset.

The course was facilitated by Dr Jill Chrisp, Expert Gender Consultant, Aishath Fasoha, APF Manager of Gender and Pacific Programmes, and Amy Janowski, APF Communications and Networking Officer.

Live sessions were held each week via Zoom, to allow for interactive discussions on a range of topics, and for participants to share their own experiences. The live sessions included a variety of activities, break-out group scenarios and presentations.

Participants identified a number of social, cultural and political barriers to fully realising and working towards gender equality. There was a clear interest in further understanding practical measures and strategies that they can use and apply to their work and organisations.

Feedback on the course was very positive, with the majority of course survey respondents saying that it was highly relevant and supported their professional development.

“The concepts provided were so simple to understand and the examples used were very informative,” said one course participant.

“I came to realize the true meaning of substantive equality,” said another participant. “As a matter of fact, while watching the video [during the course], it opened my mind to a realization of what truly is meant about substantive equality”.

Participants who successfully completed this course, have been invited to join the APF Gender Network (AGN).