The resumption, after a long hiatus, of the publication of out newsletter, "Awareness," will, we believe, delight all our supporters, for it heralds APAP's rebirth.

As repeatedly stated, APAP subscribes to the belief that it is possible to build a civil society, which is the pillar of democracy, by disseminating legal knowledge and creating awareness as regards human rights at the grassroots' level. APAP is, therefore, working in full gear to that end.

The task of building a civil society is, however, an arduous one. It also takes time.

Many scholars, of course, question the importance of legal knowledge to the poor. But we strongly believe that it is possible to improve their lot by making them aware of their rights and thus empowering them. We also know full well that the economic growth approach to development has failed.

So far as APAP is concerned, poverty is not the mere deprivation of food, shelter and clothing, but also the falling victim to a defeatist attitude that results in total powerlessness and exclusion from all development activities. We are, therefore, of the opinion that an attempt to tackle poverty without addressing this attitude and the sense of fatalism prevalent among the very poor segment of society will be nothing more than a futile exercise.

It is APAP's firm conviction that the law makes these groups conscious of their worth as humans and of their ability as humans to make a difference. By using the law and through promoting human rights awareness in a manner relevant to these groups, it is possible to bring about a change in attitude. That, in turn, positively affects the development and decision making process.

This conviction stems from the experience APAP had in the past few years of its existence. In the several activities that APAP had carried out in the past, it was possible to witness first hand that at the root of poverty is to be found an attitude inimical to development and that awareness about the law and human rights leads to assertiveness and willingness to take an action to regain lost dignity.

In launching its current two-year plan and program of operations, APAP has also endeavored to give effect to this conviction. The major problem that our society faces has been defined by APAP as poverty which is conceived as the state of both material and attitudinal impoverishment which prevents a human person from leading a fulfilled life of his/her choice. Based on this understanding of poverty, APAP derives its organizational vision as that of realizing a society in which all human rights are given effect for all human persons. In addressing the problem of poverty and in attaining its vision, APAP sees the lack of human right and legal awareness and the inability of the poor and marginalized to effectively participate in the legal and judicial system as the major challenges to overcome.

Nonetheless, APAP also realizes that overcoming these challenges will not be possible without the effective and institutionalized participation of the community at large as well as of the poor. Unfortunately, however, though there are extensive networks of governmental and voluntary institutions that can be used to access human rights knowledge as well as legal information and service to the community and to marginalized social groups, the capacity of these institutions to actually do so is seriously curtailed at the moment. This is because these institutions either suffer from resource constraints, particularly in terms of expertise, or because they are not yet interested in and committed to human rights promotion or legal and paralegal services.

For APAP, thus, the most immediate task is that of initiating the involvement of these institutions in promoting human rights awareness and in enabling excluded social groups to make use of the law, and strengthening their capacity to do so particularly through the provision of its expertise. This note of APAP follows naturally from its analysis of the problem of poverty and the attendant evils thereof prevailing in our society as well as the aspirations of our society in pursuance of development and democracy. Yet it is also a role that an NGO like APAP can feasibly and meaningfully carry out. In other words, the promotion of human rights and the institutionalization of the rule of law in our society demands the effective participation of all citizens, particularly that of the poor, women and other marginalized groups. They cannot be attained by the isolated efforts of a few NGOs however committed they may be. It is also such participation that will ensure that NGOs themselves and their programs are not merely elitist exercises marginal to the life, the development and the processes of the community at large.

This is the cardinal principle on which the current two-year plan and program of APAP are based. As is described in another article here (see APAP Launches Its Two-Year Program and Plan of Action), APAP's program and plan of action are designed to encourage the engagement and build the capacity of voluntary institutions of professionals and communities in carrying out human right education, legal and paralegal training and service provision activities on their own. The specific approach and content of the program will have to take account of the needs, aspirations, activities, and mode of operation of these institutions and their constituency. The program and plan of action have thus to be not only relevant to but also inclusive of communities.

In away, this may be seen as self-serving, too, for APAP as an institution of civil society can thrive only in the context of a strong, plural and active civil society. Building such a civil society requires the participation by citizens, the proliferation of voluntary institutions and a positive and mutually supportive relationship between government agencies and civil society actors, including NGOs. APAP's program and plan of action are designed to contribute to the fulfillment of these conditions in an effective and institutionally sustainable manner. Limited though they may be in scope and time-consuming in bearing fruit, they are, however, the first proactive steps that are necessary in the long journey of attaining our vision of a democratic and developed society where all human rights are realized for all human beings.