Introduction


The family is the cornerstone of a society. Working as an international non-government organization (NGO), the Organization of the Families of Asia and the Pacific, (O.F.A.P.), is an active promoter and defender of the interests of the Families in the Asia and the Pacific Region, as well as in other parts of the world.

Established on December 7th 1999 in Macau, OFAP was declared on May 10th, 2010 a non-profit NGO of Public Utility with Tax Exempltion Status. It was granted on 1st August 2011 Special Consultative Status with United Nations Economic and Social Council (UN ECOSCO) as an International NGO of the People’s Republic of China.

In this context, the United Nations (UN) is, by nature, an obvious forum. As such OFAP is also registered with Department of Public Information (UN DPI), and has been present at UN headquarters in New York, with opportunity for observing at the General Assembly and being present at meetings such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), preceding its Nobel Peace Prize, (conjointly with Past US Vice President Al Gore), as well as at UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), headquartered in Paris.

It has cross membership with the International Federation of Non-Governmental Organizations for the Prevention of Drug and Substance Abuse (IFNGO) which has similar ECOSOC status.

 

Objectives
 
(i) OFAP aims to assist families in the Asia Pacific region, at different levels, so as to defend and to promote their interests, as well as to liaise with governments and international communities; at the UN level, OFAP aims to be the liaison between the families of the AsiaPacific Region and the UN and its designate agencies in achieving UN strategies and activities.
   
(ii) As Family Concerns are different according to cultures and socio economic development, OFAP identified three major concerns which it feels to be non controversial and transversal throughout the World, so as to focus it's priorities, which includes the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), as follows:
  (a) drugs and substance addiction, namely the more recent synthetic drugs affecting youth;
  (b) social and human sustainable development, with special incidence on the threats from transnational and organized crime, including corruption; and
  (c) Population migrations and refugees and human trafficking, with correlation to economic disparities and climate change.

 

Accomplishments

Main Vectors on Family Concerns are international and worldwide in nature. Thus, policies were developed while considering the Sustainable Development Goals, especially within the civil society, such as, for instance, an educational pilot project for children, in the form of an anti-corruption table game.

Family,  as the basic constituent cell of society,  has many concerns,  which cannot be addressed simultaneously: OFAP opted to emphasize matters relating to the development of Citizenship,  in which,  addressing drugs and crime becomes very relevant.

Consequently,  OFAP privileges the relationship with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and it is an active member of the Vienna NGO Committee (VNGOC) and the Alliance on Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ),  as well as having been appointed by the President of the UN General Assembly to the (consultative) Civil Society Task Force,  for the latest UN General Assembly Special Session UNGASS on Drugs,  representing Family Concerns. It has,  previously,  in 2008,  organized,  in Macau,  a consultative conference on the same subject,  publishing its report “Beyond 2008” afterwards.

In its mission,  OFAP was present at Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND),  since its admission to ECOSOC status,  and is a steady presence in the meetings of CCPCJ,  Commission on Transnational Organized Crime (CTOC),  as well as UN Convention on Anti Corruption (UNCAC),  and participated in several side events as well,  during these meetings,  some of which it co-organized.

To continue these objectives,  OFAP is co-publisher of Femicide,  addressing not only the Condition of Women world-wide,  but,  also,  with special objectives such as,  in the last year (2018),  Trafficking in Persons,  and,  this year (2019),  Cybercrime.

For all this,  and since OFAP belongs to the Civil Society of China,  we contact with the Offices of the Foreign Ministry of China in Macau and the Permanent Mission of The People’s Republic of China to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Vienna,  as well other official bodies of Macau and high entities in the P.R.C., were established

OFAP is also active outside the scope of the UN,  having co-organized,  with IFNGO three world conferences in Macau,  addressing family and drug concerns,  as well as other addiction problems,  the last one with emphasis on internet addiction,  which, China was the first state declaring it a clinical addiction.

Obviously,  there was also cooperation with other civil society bodies,  such as the Abu Dhabi Family Foundation,  in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Rotary International Action Group for Drugs (RAGFD), Harm Reduction, in Australia, among others,  as well as intervening in diverse conferences and workshops.