This regional brief sheds light on the progress made by countries in the Asia-Pacific region on a set of key transformative gender equality targets and indicators linked to the SDG 5, and identifies the challenges in achieving our commitments including key data gaps that need urgent attention to realise gender equality for women and girls […]

Sexual and gender minorities are already experiencing various levels of oppression and discrimination and these are further exacerbated during the CoVid-19 pandemic. This document provides some of the salient points from the dialogue organised by Youth Voices Count (YVC), the United Nations Major Group on Children and Youth (UN MGCY), Asian Youth Peace Network (AYPN), […]

While the absolute number of persons aged 65 or over globally in 2019, is projected at 703 million, Central and Southern Asia contributed to 119 million persons (17%), and Eastern and Southern Asia contributed to 260.6 million persons (37%). These demographic shifts have implications related to health, health care systems, health workforce, health care technologies, […]

On 21-23 March,  youth advocates and youth-serving organisations from the region convened in Bangkok for the Pre-APFSD 2019 Youth Forum, which continues the discussion from last year’s Youth Forum, focusing on the implementation of the Agenda 2030 in Asia-Pacific. This call to action echoes the voices, concerns and demands which were discussed over three days. […]

Sexuality is a central aspect of young people’s lives, and yet it largely remains taboo. At the same time, sexuality is very much political and beyond the personal, and sexuality intersects with various aspects of our lives, whether at school, at work, and at the policy level. Multiple intersecting factors are influenced by and influence […]

The current thematic papers looks at a new paradigm shift in thinking – and talking – about mental illness and psychosocial disability, shifting the focus away from the entrenched “bio-medical psychiatry” that puts emphasis on the pathology at the individual level, and instead into a  discourse that puts principles of autonomy, dignity and equality into […]

The struggle for the rights of disabled persons have long been an arduous journey, fraught with pseudo-sciences and external factors such as conflict and poverty. People with disabilities are often subjected to discrimination and violence, and to a large extent are deprived of their right to live independently. Within this struggle for human rights for […]