WHAT WE DO
INTRODUCTION TO APRRN
The Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN) was founded in 2008 and is a membership network that works collaboratively on protecting and promoting the human rights of refugees and other people on the move in need of protection—including asylum seekers, trafficked persons, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), stateless persons, migrants in vulnerable situations and returnees—in the Asia Pacific region. APRRN is an open and growing network of over 270 individuals and organisations in 28 countries.
APRRN is a trusted advisor and resource; we deliver essential toolkits to facilitate joint, comprehensive advocacy in the region, and to ensure refugees and other people on the move have access to equitable protection, assistance, socioeconomic inclusion, and timely durable solutions. The APRRN Secretariat, with its main office in Bangkok, currently consists of 12 staff and consultants in the region under the leadership of two Co-Secretaries General, one of whom has lived experience.
THE CURRENT ASIA PACIFIC CONTEXT
The Asia Pacific is home to some of the world's most acute and protracted refugee situations, where millions of men, women, and children have been driven out of Myanmar and Afghanistan by conflict and instability. Two of the largest populations of stateless people in the world live in the Asia Pacific, a region for which climate-related displacement is also predicted to rise in the near future.
The current human rights context and dynamics in most parts of the region are dire, including for refugees and other people on the move. They face multiple barriers that hinder access to the full enjoyment of rights, access to services, and opportunities to reach their full potential.
There are currently over 7.3 million refugees and asylum seekers in the Asia Pacific, who lack fundamental human rights as most states in the region do not have protection frameworks or systems in place. The region maintains the lowest number of signatory states to the 1951 Refugee Convention and the majority of national protection systems are ad hoc and precarious. Therefore, human rights violations and abuses take place daily and include lack of due process, forced returns, torture, detention, and denial of the rights to health, housing, and education.
WHAT WE DO - COLLABORATIVE ADVOCACY, NETWORKING, AND CAPACITY BUILDING
APRRN is continuing to evolve and change in our pursuit of greater impact, inclusivity, and capacity as a network with a vision for protecting and promoting the rights of refugees and other people in need of protection in the Asia Pacific region. Our new 2023-2027 APRRN strategy reflects this vision.
APRRN facilitates cross-cultural collaboration and regional action, galvanising and directing momentum to ensure the region is effectively, safely, and collaboratively demanding action thereby advancing the socioeconomic inclusion and equitable human rights of refugees and other people on the move in situations of vulnerability.
By working together as a regional network, our ability to hold governments to account is significant. APRRN advocates with governments in the Asia Pacific to draft, implement, and monitor laws, policies, and practices that protect the human rights of refugees and other displaced persons in the region to prevent and end severe violations of human rights. This includes addressing and recommending solutions to the ongoing persecution against Rohingya, and the displacement of all Myanmar and Afghan people on the move in our region. We also envisage to widen our advocacy to include other vulnerable and diverse groups, such as LGBTQI refugees.
Capacity building of APRRN members, with a specific focus on Refugee-Led organisations and initiatives, remains a core value and objective of APRRN, as does the implementation of intentional and meaningful refugee participation. Our efforts for our members to intentionally connect with each other across themes and regions, as well as with the Secretariat, is also an important and integral part of APRRN’s mission.
Focus
APRRN has a wealth of expertise and experience through our members. We believe in investing in our members and strengthening the capacity of advocates in the region to effectively respond to emerging protection challenges and build towards sustainable change. APRRN assesses the gaps and coordinates training sessions and workshops, creating spaces for mutual and complementary capacity strengthening amongst actors.
Focus
APRRN is a collaborative movement that works to build strong alliances and partnerships to advance refugee rights and address the needs of refugees and other people in need of protection. APRRN members include human rights advocacy groups, research institutions, law firms providing pro-bono legal aid, and refugees themselves. Our goal is national and local ownership of refugee protection, harmonised within a regional framework that is consistent with international standards.
At the national level, APRRN aims to strengthen local civil society actors and encourages the formation of national networks. APRRN also aims to engage with a variety of other key stakeholders such as UNHCR, other UN agencies, donors and governments to effectively influence policy for better protection. To coordinate, plan and evaluate these advocacy strategies, APRRN holds sub-regional consultations, roundtables, and workshops throughout the year.
Focus
APRRN builds on the existing work of members, and aims to become a source as well as a conduit of information through improved knowledge and resource-sharing throughout the network. We strive to be enablers of valuable exchanges among members and actors in the region to increase the effectiveness of our advocacy individual and collective efforts for impactful policy changes to better refugee protection in this region.
Meaningful Refugee Participation and Refugee Leadership
Meaningful Refugee participation and leadership;
Meaningful Refugee Participation, which is intentional and diverse, is at the core of our work - embedded as a cross-cutting theme and focus across our 2023-2027 Strategy and Operational Plan. As we have shifted to a co-leadership model, between those with and without lived experience of forced migration, we are using this as a catalyst for change across the organisation, amongst our membership, and with external partners. We want to further strengthen our approach by looking deeply internally across our policies and practices to ensure we and our membership and partners, including Refugee-Led Organisations (RLOs), civil society, iNGOs and agencies, are doing all we can to meaningfully include and promote the agency of those with lived experience within our network by building a collaborative, safe and inclusive environment.
At APRRN, while we have increased and diversified representation of those with lived experience in the last couple of years, we also believe and want that people with lived experiences have additional and adequate support needed to navigate this space and influence decision-making on a long-term basis. To overcome the challenges to intentional, full and equitable participation is not only about addressing the number of people with lived experiences who get to sit around negotiation tables, but it's also about increasing their presence, diversity and voices, and facilitating the confidence so those with lived experience can freely be part of the solutions from the outset by addressing gaps and influence decision making on policies and practices that affect them and many others.
At APRRN, starting in late 2024 we have created a Meaningful Refugee Participation Advisory Group with eight practitioners to support and provide expert guidance on our internal transformation journey to MRP within APRRN. This group will provide key insight to support us with developing guidance on how we can work better with those with lived experience, especially with those in leadership positions. It will also include communication and engagement with members.
Our commitment:
At the Global Refugee Forum in 2023, we made pledges aimed at increasing refugee leadership and participation internally and externally at APRRN. These stated:
Internally:
- by 2025: 25 percent representation of people with lived experience of forced displacement within the APRRN Secretariat, and APRRN Governance;
- by 2027: 30 percent representation of people with lived experience of forced displacement within the Secretariat and APRRN governance )
Externally:
- By 2027: having facilitated access to a total of 200,000 USD to at least six Refugee Led Organisations and Initiatives in the Asia Pacific as unearmarked funding
- By 2027: having contributed to improved meaningful refugee participation by NGOs and INGOs in the Asia Pacific after providing and supporting four trainings and mentorship for 10 NGOs or INGOs on good practices when working with RLOs/Is
Click to read more on the "Learnings from our Co-Leadership between persons with and without lived experience of forced migration"