The APF, in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Asia and the Pacific Regional Office (APRO) co-hosted a workshop on 22 March 2023 to develop a National Human Rights Institution (NHRI) Advocacy Action Plan on reproductive rights in the Asia Pacific region.

Sixteen participants from 11 NHRIs in the region participated in the online workshop, which was facilitated by UNFPA consultant Sonali Regmi.

The NHRI Advocacy Action Plan on reproductive rights is being developed to operationalise the recommendations of a recent study titled “Integrating Reproductive Rights into the Work of National Human Rights Institutions of the Asia-Pacific Region: A Revised and Updated Study of the Views, Practices, Challenges and Opportunities between 2011 and 2021”, undertaken by UNFPA in association with APF and NHRIs in the region.

Fifteen NHRIs in the region participated in the study – the NHRIs of Bahrain, Bangladesh, India, Iraq, Jordan, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Samoa, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste.

The study shows that NHRIs in the region engage in a range of issues on sexual and reproductive health rights in their countries through research, monitoring, investigation of violations, advocacy, legal and policy review and reporting to the international human rights system.

The workshop participants provided inputs to the draft NHRI Advocacy Action Plan on reproductive rights which includes a range of activities and indicators relating to capacity building of NHRIs, investigations, research and assessment, awareness raising and capacity, legal and policy review, periodic reporting, fundraising, and monitoring and evaluation of the action plan.

The Advocacy Action Plan is expected to provide further guidance to NHRIs in the Asia Pacific region to accelerate their work on sexual and reproductive health rights.

Date: 31 March 2023