The chairperson of NHRCK, Young-hoang Cho, and five secretariat staffs attended the 11th Annual Meeting of the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (hereinafter the " Forum" ), held in Suva, Fiji, from 31 July to 3 August 2006.
The Forum, consisting of 17 National Human Rights Institutions in the Asia Pacific region, was established in 1996 and has held annual meeting for the last 11 years.
This year, the speakers stressed the importance of human rights and the role of national human rights institutions and called upon states in the Asia Pacific region to establish and strengthen national human rights institutions and ensure their full compliance with the " Paris Principles" .
The Forum Councillors decided NHRCK to keep the Forum’s representative to the ICC (International Co-ordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights).
In addition, NHRCK was nominated to assume the Forum’s representative on the ICC accreditation sub-committee in October 2006 following the Fiji Human Rights Commission, the present representative. The national institution of Fiji will serve on the ICC accreditation sub-committee until the finalization of the ICC re-accreditation criteria which is scheduled to occur in October 2006.
The Forum agreed to form a new working group on United Nations treaty body reform and requested that the existing working groups on (i) the United Nations Human Rights Council and (ii) disability continue their important work and submit proposals for the consideration and decision by Forum Councillors.
