The Asia Pacific Feminist Forum (APFF) is a tri-annual event which was born in 2011, when APWLD and our members realised a need for addressing the lack of feminist spaces for organising and advocacy, for women human rights defenders (WHRDs), feminists, and women’s rights activists from across the Asia and the Pacific. The APFF brings us all together to celebrate collective wins and resistances, deepen feminist knowledge, strengthen our linkages and solidarities with each other, and reignite our feminist fire!

The APFF is organised by APWLD, and guided by the Activity Organising Committee (AOC) which is composed of our members and non-member allies. This year’s AOC includes:

• Asel Dunganaeva, ALGA, Kyrgyzstan
• Devi Leiper O’ Malley, Individual, Cambodian American
• Eni Lestari, International Migrant Alliance, Indonesia
• Ivy Josiah, Individual, Malaysia
• Joan E. Salvador or Joms, Gabriela, Philippines
• Nalini Singh, FWRM, Fiji
• Ume Laila Azhar, HomeNet Pakistan

The APFF will take place on 12th-14th September, 2024 at The Empress Convention Centre and Hotel, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Participants at the APFF will be accommodated in Chiang Mai. Please reach out to the APFF Team via email for details.

This APFF, our theme is Feminist World-Building: Creative Energies, Collective Journeys. This theme will bring us together to show our resistance to the patriarchal, militarised and greed-driven world we are living in, while celebrating our movements, reclaiming our narratives, and envisioning a feminist world. If a feminist world is to come to be, then we must accept that the future is now, and at APFF 4, we will work together to build a roadmap to our feminist world. You can learn more about the APFF theme here.

The first APFF took place in 2011, followed by APFF 2 in 2014, and APFF 3 in 2017. APFF 4 was delayed due to the pandemic, but now, we are finally ready to return!

The APFF is a place for feminists and women’s rights activists from across Asia and the Pacific to convene together to celebrate our movements, achievements and each other, learn from each other’s work, and strengthen our solidarities and collective resolutions for structural change. Events at the APFF are diverse, ranging from opening plenary sessions with amazing speakers from across Asia and the Pacific, to workshops, side-events, solidarity actions, a wellness space, a feminist bazaar, lots of dancing, and much more!

Please reach out to the APFF Team, as we assess these requests on a case-by-case basis, depending on resources available.

You can reach out to the APFF Team to check if this request can be accommodated. However, we have also reached a very high capacity in our resources, and we cannot guarantee or promise that we will be able to accommodate any more participants for the APFF.

You can participate in the APFF in multiple ways, including:

• Following us online during the APFF to see our updates and livestream.
• Volunteering with us if you’re based in Chiang Mai.
• Setting up a booth at our Feminist Bazaar if you’re a local, ethical, and sustainable business!

Keep watching our socials for updates on other ways you can get involved!

You can pay the registration fee on the day of the APFF. For all self-funded participants, the registration fee is $100 USD, to be paid in full in cash when you register for the APFF.

You absolutely can! We will have a Feminist Library Corner set up, where all our participants can share brochures, reports, books, stickers, posters, pins, and other promotional materials from their organisations and movements. There is no fee or charge for showcasing your materials.

If you have larger banners or posters from your movements, we encourage you to bring those along as well, as the APFF is a space where we hold multiple solidarity actions such as protests and strikes. You can use your banners and posters as part of your solidarity actions on any of the three days of the APFF, or even at our Opening Night!

We are currently working on an APFF programme, and it will be uploaded on the APFF website and shared with participants closer to the APFF.

We will share information about the workshops on our microsite, to allow you to choose between the different workshops you’d like to attend. Registration is contingent upon the preferences and requirements of each workshop’s facilitation team.

We love the enthusiasm of all our participants and understand how infectious it can be! To enable everyone to connect with each other, we’re working on setting up an app such as Slack where we can keep in touch before, during, and after the APFF. A link will be shared once we’ve launch the app channel!

Yes, there are many other events happening in 2024. APFF is a separate feminist forum for APWLD members and non-members who are feminists and activists in Asia and the Pacific. Our participants are composed of individuals and women-led organisations working on women’s human rights, with preference given to participants from grassroots and marginalised communities. The APFF is not just a celebratory space, but also a fiercely political space for strategising, knowledge-exchange, and feminist mobilising and advocacy.

While our forums are different, the feminist movement is a dynamic and interconnected movement working across the world towards the shared realisation of women’s human rights, and we encourage participants to make the most of every feminist space in our region and beyond!

Absolutely! We will be sharing a call for volunteers based in Chiang Mai in the months leading up to APFF. Volunteers outside of Chiang Mai who can support their own travel and accommodation can also apply when the call for volunteers is out.

You can contribute to APFF by spreading the word in your networks, sharing the call for workshops and participation, and following our updates once APFF begins.

We will provide masks and sanitisers as precautionary measures, and provide Antigen Testing Kits (ATKs) to all participants.

In every APFF, participants come together for solidarity actions and statements, build manifestos, create new collaborations and reinvigorate old ones, and expand their knowledge, skills, and network. But most importantly, we will leave APFF with a clear roadmap towards a feminist world based in equality, human rights, and justice, a roadmap which will guide us all in our collective and individual work.