The Asia Pacific Forum (APF) has chosen Qatar to host a regional sub-office which is currently being set up to begin its duties next year. This was announced during 20th APF annual meeting which was held last Wednesday, in the Republic of Mongolia. Dr. Al Marri, who delivered the opening speech of the forum, stated that "I have the pleasure to extend my sincere thanks and appreciation to the Secretariat of the Asia Pacific Forum for the hard work contributing to the success of my mission as the president of the forum". Al Marri stressed that I would like to emphasize that our efforts to develop national institutions shall not stop at this point, however, we shall continue our work through the sub-regional office of the Forum, which is currently being established in Doha, and hopefully it shall be launched at the beginning of 2016 and shall constitute a new addition to our efforts in strengthening the cooperation and interaction among members of the Forum. Qatar, represented by the National Human Rights Committee, handed over the presidency of the Asia Pacific Forum to the Republic of Mongolia, represented by its National Human Rights Commission. Al Marri, during his speech, congratulated Mr. Byambadorj Jamsran, chief Commissioner of National Human Rights Commission of Mongolia, on his nomination as the new president of the Forum, and wished him success, and expressed his confidence that his knowledge and experience shall contribute to a distinctive and fruitful term. Dr. Al Marri and the NHRC delegation convened in a number of meetings relating to the 20th session of the forum, including the forum's annual meeting and the Conference of the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions. The committee delegation participated in a workshop on updating Development Fund (Applying the process of raising funds as the State of Qatar is one of the supporters of the APF), and another workshop on the relationship between national human rights institutions and human rights defenders. Dr. Ali Bin Al-Marri Smaikh chaired the annual general meeting of the APF advisers During the meeting, where the agenda was adopted, after the election of the new President of the Forum (Chairman of the Mongolian Human Rights Commission) by the General Secretariat. While two nominations were submitted for convening the 22nd annual meeting of the APF in 2017 including Korea and Nepal, and two nominations for chairing the sub-committee on accreditation of the International Coordinating Committee including India and Jordan. The NHRC delegation participated in a session on the role of national human rights institutions in combating torture and other forms of ill-treatment, and another session on monitoring under the Optional Protocol. Dr. Ali bin Smaikh Marri, held a press conference to answer questions of the press around the Asia-Pacific Forum and the achievements of the Forum compared to other regional networks, including its efficiency and its capabilities of dealing with human rights violations and supporting national human rights institutions accredited status (A).