Justice and Human Rights in the Asia-Pacific

The Asia-Pacific Regional Centre (APRC) was inaugurated in April 2005, combining the Asia-Pacific Regional Programmes with the policy advice related to UNDP practice areas, including Justice and Human Rights. The APRC also facilitates the Asia-Pacific Rights and Justice Initiative, which was launched in August 2002 in order to develop a community of practice around the UNDP Democratic Governance sub-practice of Access to Justice. In terms of substance, the Initiative explores and conceptualizes the links between access to justice and human rights and contributes to defining UNDP's niche in this field. The Initiative focusses particularly on the goals of equality and non-discrimination and emphasizes access to justice by disadvantaged groups.

The synergy of regional programmes with the vitality of the community of practice that has been built up over the last three years has enabled the APRC to focus on the following initiatives:

  • Training and pilot projects based on the on the Access to Justice Practitioner’s Guide
  • Regional studies on Inclusive Governance including studies on the interface between formal and informal justice systems
  • Study on justice indicators for the Asia-Pacific
  • Training and capacity development on applying a human rights-based approach to justice programmes, particularly in Tsunami affected countries
Through the community of practice established around the Asia-Pacific Rights and Justice Initiative, it has been possible to develop a set of tools and resources for practitioners working in the field of justice and human rights. Following are a few tools that can be used by beginners and experienced practitioners to assist in research as well as in programme design and implementation.

Programming for Justice: Access For All

A Practitioner's Guide to a Human Rights-Based Approach to Access Justice

This comprehensive programming guide aims to help practitioners design rights based access to justice projects. It introduces a holistic model of access to justice, provides guidance on how to programme and prioritize access to justice strategies, and maps a large number of capacity development strategies of justice system institutions and processes.

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Towards Inclusive Governance: Promoting the Participation of Disadvantaged Groups in Asia-Pacific, published by the Asia-Pacific Regional Centre, is the outcome of a collaborative project supported by three Asia-Pacific regional programmes – Governance, Gender and Indigenous Peoples. This publication explores some avenues whereby the principles of non-discrimination, participation, accountability, and empowerment have enabled disadvantaged and vulnerable groups to secure more inclusion in governance. The publication contains some lessons learnt in eight Asia-Pacific countries: (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Fiji, India, Iran, Philippines & Sri Lanka. The ten case studies summarized here make a strong case for inclusion of excluded groups to ensure effective representation, and create conditions conducive for greater respect, promotion, and fulfillment of human rights of all people.

The full text of the case studies abstracted in this publication can be accessed at:


Lessons From the Asia-Pacific Rights and Justice Initiative - Applying HRBA to Justice Programmes

A compilation of lessons learned from the Asia-Pacific Rights and Justice Initiative. This section includes lessons derived from applying HRBA to justice programmes. It also includes documentation of lessons learned on practice development.

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Justice and Human Rights Case Studies from the Asia-Pacific

These case studies draw on the experiences of UNDP practitioners working on various types of justice and human rights programmes in the Asia-Pacific. Along with the individual country case studies, an overall codification of the case studies is available which provides some background and analysis to all the case studies.

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