The Sydney-based Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (APF) was yesterday named winner of this year’s Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy.
“The APF is recognized for its contributions in making regional governments understand the significance of upholding human rights,” foundation chairperson You Si-kun (游錫堃), who is also the legislative speaker, told a news conference.
The annual award was established in 2006. Previous winners include international press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders, Afghan women’s rights advocate Sima Samar and the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances, which was founded in Manila.
Foundation president Huang Yu-lin (黃玉霖) said the selection process this year involved two rounds of reviews by seven local panelists and seven foreign panelists.
This year’s nominees included individuals and organizations from Australia, India and the US, among others, he said.
The APF is a coalition of national human rights institutions (NHRIs) from across the Asia-Pacific region that works to improve the promotion and protection of human rights for vulnerable people in the region, the foundation said.
Founded in 1996, the APF has 16 NHRIs from different countries as official members, and nine other NHRIs as associate members, a foundation news release said.
The APF’s major achievements include helping member institutions to realize their national mandates and developing comprehensive programs for regional cooperation on human rights, it said.
Derek Mitchell, president of the US based-National Democratic Institute, and also a member of the finalist selection committee, said in the news release that it is “an important time to spotlight human rights and democracy commitments throughout the region, and the enduring relevance of these values.”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there would be no in-person awards ceremony this year, the foundation said, adding that videos introducing the work of the APF and its winning speech would instead be posted on the foundation’s Web site and social media platforms on Thursday next week.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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