P: +61 7 3346 645• E: r2pinfo@uq.edu.au 2017 ISSUE 1

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The Asia Pacific Partnership for Atrocity Prevention

The Asia Pacific Partnership for Atrocity Prevention (APPAP) is an alliance of organizations that aims to contribute to the prevention of atrocities, and their incitement, and the protection of vulnerable com-munities in the Asia Pacific region. APPAP held its first meeting in Sin-gapore from 7-8 November 2016. Offering opening remarks at the meeting, Dr. Surin Pitswan, former Secretary-General of ASEAN and Chair of the High-Level Advisory Panel on the Responsibility to Pro-tect in Southeast, welcomed AP-PAP’s official launch and commend-ed APPAP members for joining their efforts to promote a shared vision of region that protects its own people from atrocity crimes.

The fourteen founding members of the Asia Pacific Partnership for

Atrocity Prevention include: Altse-an-Burma; ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights; the Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Pro-tect; Ateneo de Manila University; the Cambodian Institute for Coop-eration and Peace; the Centre for International Law, Korean National Diplomatic Academy; the Centre for Non-Traditional Security, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; the Global Centre for the Responsi-bility to Protect; the Habibie Centre; Human Rights Working Group-Indo-nesia; Humanti, Malaysia; the Bali Institute for Peace and Democracy; Initiatives for International Dialogue, Mindanao, The Philippines; and the Research Centre on the United Na-tions and International Organiza-tions, Beijing Foreign Studies Uni-versity, China.

APPAP’s goal is to facilitate coher-ent and comprehensive action to prevent atrocities that mobilizes the capacities of local, regional and global actors. At their first meeting, members endorsed six key princi-ples to guide APPAP action:

1. the full implementation of the Re-sponsibility to Protect principleas agreed by all governments atthe 2005 World Summit, in ac-cordance with the Charter of theUnited Nations;

2. the full implementation of Inter-national Humanitarian and Hu-man Rights Law, especially,

• Convention on the Preven-tion and Punishment of theCrime of Genocide

• Rome Statute of the Inter-national Criminal Court

SPOTLIGHT ON ATROCITIES PREVENTION

AP R2P / Building 39A / School of Political Science and International Studies / The University of Queensland / St Lucia Brisbane QLD 4072 Australia P2

• International Covenant onCivil and Political Rightsand the Second OptionalProtocol thereto (1989)

• International Covenanton Social, Economic andCultural Rights

• Convention against Tortureand Other Cruel, Inhumanor Degrading Treatment orPunishment

• Convention on the Elimina-tion of All Forms of Discrim-ination Against Women

• Convention on the Elimina-tion of All Forms of RacialDiscrimination

• Convention relating to theStatus of Refugees and the1967 Protocol thereto

• Convention on the Rightsof the Child

• Arms Trade Treaty

3. full respect for the principle ofinclusivity;

4. recognition and respect for cul-tural diversity;

5. recognition of the need for gen-der sensitive approaches to allaspects of work; and

6. recognition of the value of therule of law, the principle of legalaccountability and the need toend impunity.

APPAP ACTION PLANIn November 2016, APPAP mem-bers also adopted an action plan for progressing their goals, which includes establishing four Working Groups:

•The Working Group on AtrocityPrevention and Awareness Rais-ing aims to develop a comprehen-sive plan for raising awareness ofR2P and building commitment to itacross the region, and is convenedby: the Cambodian Institute for Co-operation and Peace and the AsiaPacific Centre for the Responsibilityto Protect;

•The Working Group on SecuritySector Governance and AtrocityPrevention aims to develop a reportoutlining how security sector gover-nance might be utilized to supportatrocity prevention in the Asia Pa-cific, and is convened by: Initiativesfor International Dialogue, Mdm. Lo-retta Rosales, and the Coalition forthe International Criminal Court-AsiaPacific;

•The Working Group on the Pre-vention of Incitement to CommitAtrocity Crimes aims to devel-op draft regional guidelines on theprevention of incitement to commitatrocity crimes and prevention ofhate speech in a manner consistentwith the right to speech, and is con-vened by: Human Rights WorkingGroup-Indonesia and the HabibieCentre; and

•The Working Group on Genderand Atrocities Prevention aims todevelop a report on gender violenceand discrimination and early warningon atrocity crimes, and is convenedby Ateneo de Manila University andthe Asia Pacific Centre for the Re-sponsibility to Protect.

APPAP also plans to support early warning capacity building by con-vening training on the United Na-tions Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes, which will focus on early warning indicators and how to incorporate them into daily work of organisations.

The Asia Pacific Centre for the Re-sponsibility to Protect serves as the APPAP Secretariat, and provides administrative support and maintains the APPAP website. APPAP mem-bership is open to organizations that operate within the Asia Pacific and are committed to the core principles and purposes of the partnership.

APPAP SECRETARIAT based at the

ASIA PACIFIC CENTRE FOR THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT

Building 39ASchool of Political Science

& International StudiesThe University of Queensland,

St Lucia Brisbane QLD 4072P +61 7 3346 6435

E: r2pinfo@uq.edu.au