In addition to the above activities which fall under the Asia-Pacific frame­work and related OHCHR funding, help has also been provided by the OHCHR through technical cooperation programmes at the country level, e.g. on the develop­ment of national human rights action plans and human rights education plans in cooperation with other agencies, particularly UNDP through its Human Rights Strengthening (HURIST) project with the OHCHR.

2) Stock-taking
From a variety of interviews carried out for this study, in addition to other information, the most successful building block has been the first pillar: the setting up of national human rights institutions and related activities. This is a growth industry and national commissions have proliferated in recent years; this has been partly helped by the OHCHR-supported framework for the Asia-Pacific re­gion. There are now at least 15 national human rights commissions, and Timor Leste recently established an Ombudsperson. The cooperation and networking between these institutions has grown, backed by the APF whose secretariat is in Sydney; activities are partly funded by the OHCHR. The member institutions have set up an Advisory Council of Jurists, consisting of jurists nominated by each member institution, to provide advice on human rights issues. The Council has provided advisory opinions on topics ranging from the death penalty to child pornography on the Internet and most recently on anti-terrorism measures and the Rule of Law. Once the opinions are given, member institutions are supposed to report back in regard to follow-up measures.

The APF and its network of national human rights institutions arc the closest that the Asia-Pacific region has come to a regional arrangement or machinery for the promotion and protection of human rights. One interviewee involved in the Asia-Pacific Framework observed that the work of the AFP and OHCHR had a "flow-on effect" and "traction" in encouraging countries without national institutions to establish them. The Doha workshop and the APF stimulated several Arab/Gulf countries to explore the possibility of setting up national human rights commissions. It should be noted that the APF is a forum of national institu­tions which aim to be independent of the executive branch of Government and to he pluralistic in composition (consistent with UN principles on the subject). However, the APF is not inter-governmental along the line of the regional human rights systems found in Europe, the Americas and Africa.

Implementation of the other building blocks vary in terms of activi­ties and impact. With regard to the second pillar - the development of national human rights action plans, a small number of Asia-Pacific countries have adopted national human rights action plans, the most recent being Mongolia. New Zealand has also been finalizing a plan. The main purpose of these plans is to set a national time-bound framework to promote actions in favour of human rights, e.g. reforms of various laws, inviting cooperation from designated ministries and partnership with and/or scrutiny from the civil society sector in a five-year time frame. While the process of developing these plans has often been participatory and broad-based, a major obstacle facing many of the plans is their slow and/or limited implementa­tion.
With regard to the most recent workshop on the subject - the Inter-sessional Expert Meeting on National Human Rights Action Plans and Human Rights Education in the Asian-Pacific Region held in Bangkok in October 2004, the lessons learned , replete with a degree of ambivalence, included the following (drawn from its Conclusions):

“7.The Meeting concluded that national human rights action plans (including plans relating to human rights education) are potentially a useful mechanism for the promotion and protection of human rights. The Meeting noted that work on national action plans has been going on for 10 years, but data on successful experience is still limited.  Experiences so far suggest, therefore, that national action plans have considerably greater potential than has yet been realized....

9.To date, the more productive aspect of the national action plan processes has been found in preparation rather than in implemen­tation or evaluation. Preparatory phases have often produced good consultation and awareness -raising..

13. A successful implementation of the national plans of action was recognized as one of the major challenges. In this context, the importance of effective coordination and monitoring at the national level was underlined..."

There is also a question concerning financial support for these plans. Since these human rights action plans are national rather than regional in the Asia­Pacific sense, support for their development and implementation should logically come from technical (country) programming at the national level rather than support through the Asia-Pacific (regional) framework under the OHCHR umbrella. There is also the potential of tapping the UN country team consisting of a variety of UN agencies at the national level - often with more resources than the OHCHR itself.

The third pillar is human rights education. At the regional level, the OHCHR has supported various workshops and the development of resource mate­rials on human rights education, with the help of regional NGOs. However, the main challenge is implementation of human rights education at the national level, particularly in view of the new UN World Programme of Action on Human Rights Education which calls for mainstreaming of human rights education into primary and secondary schools. Again support for such activities should take place through national programming and budget rather than the regional Asia-Pacific framework. The main UN agency on this issue should logically be the UN Education, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) which could should lead in relation to national, sub-regional and regional human rights education activities, in cooperation with the OHCHR. The national level activities would be better resourced and assisted through country programming in cooperation with the UN country team (UNCT).