The Asia-Pacific region combines states with widely varying human rights records and institutions. There are both democratic states with strong human rights records and undemocratic states which violate the rights of their citizens in a gross and flagrant manner. Is it possible, with such a stark contrast, to construct a human rights institution which functions effectively across the region?

David Matas will examine this question by considering the experience of the Universal Periodic Review of the United Nations Human Rights Council, and will suggest the construction of a regional Asia-Pacific human rights institution based on the Review. A regional institution would function differently from the Universal Review, taking into account local political dynamics.

David Matas is a private practice lawyer in Winnipeg, Manitoba, specialising in refugee, immigration and human rights law. David also teaches in the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba. He was a member of the Amnesty International Standing Committee on Mandate of the International Executive Committee, 1993–99, is Legal Co-ordinator Canadian Section 1980 to the present, and was a member of the anti-impunity working group 2002–05. David has received many human rights awards, including: B’nai Brith Canada Presidential Citation 2004, 2005; Vancouver Interfaith Brotherhood Person of the Year 2006; International Commission of Jurists Walter Tarnopolsky Human Rights Award, 2007; Asia Pacific Human Rights Watch Charitable Trust Guardian of Justice Award 2007; and Order of Canada, 2009. He is the author of Justice Delayed: Nazi War Criminals in Canada, 1987 with Susan Charendoff; The Sanctuary Trial, 1989; No More: The Battle Against Human Rights Violations, 1994; and co-editor of The Machinery of Death, Amnesty International USA 1995.