Amnesty International Report 2016/17 - Regional Overview: Asia-Pacific
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Date:
22 February 2017
While many governments in the Asia Pacific region – home to 60% of the world's population – increasingly repressed people's human rights, there were also signs of positive change in some countries and contexts.
There were loud and insistent demands for freedom of expression and justice, and activism and protests against violations grew. Young people were increasingly determined to speak out for their and others' rights. Online technologies and social media offered expanded opportunities to share information, expose injustices, to organize and advocate. Repeatedly, human rights defenders – often working in the most difficult circumstances and with limited resources – stood firm against heavy-handed state oppression, taking inspirational and courageous action.
Yet the price was often high. Many governments displayed an appalling disregard for freedom, justice and dignity. They strove to muzzle opposing voices and suppress protest and activism, including online dissent, through crackdowns, by force or cynical deployment of old and new laws.
In East Asia, governmental transparency diminished and the perception of a growing gap between governments and their citizens increased. This was compounded by entrenched repression in countries such as China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). A pattern of deepening intolerance towards criticism and open debate unfolded in South Asia, with bloggers murdered in Bangladesh, media workers assailed in Pakistan and space for civil society in countries such as India shrinking. In Southeast Asia, key rights – freedoms of thought, conscience, religion, opinion, expression, association and assembly – came under extensive assault, with crackdowns by Thailand's military regime and attempts to mute political voices in Malaysia.
As the space for civil society shrank in many countries, discrimination – particularly against racial and ethnic minorities, and women and girls – expanded in a range of countries and contexts.
In many states – including China, Malaysia, Maldives, Nepal, North Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Viet Nam – torture and other ill-treatment was among the tools used to target human rights defenders, marginalized groups and others.
Such violations were often sustained by a failure to ensure accountability for torturers and other perpetrators of human rights violations. Impunity was pernicious, frequently chronic, and common to many states. Victims were denied justice, truth and other forms of redress. There was some progress on this front, however. They included slow steps towards delivering accountability for alleged crimes under international law that had plagued Sri Lanka for decades, although widespread impunity persisted; and the bilateral agreement between Japan and the Republic of Korea (South Korea) on the military sexual slavery system before and during World War II which was nonetheless criticized for excluding survivors from its negotiations. In a historic ruling, a court in the Philippines convicted a police officer of torture for the first time under the 2009 Anti-Torture Act. The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court indicated that it might soon open an investigation in Afghanistan, which could cover allegations of crimes by the Taliban, the Afghan government and US forces.
In Myanmar, intensification of the conflict in Kachin State, and an eruption of violence in northern Rakhine State – where a security operation forced members of the Rohingya and Rakhine communities to flee their homes – aggravated an already serious human rights and humanitarian situation in which tens of thousands of people had been displaced by violence in recent years. Government restrictions prevented access to humanitarian aid in both states. Afghanistan's armed conflict continued due to a resurgent Taliban, inflicting a devastating toll on civilians.
Armed groups fuelled insecurity and suffering in several countries committing abuses such as abductions and unlawful killings in central and northeastern India and in Jammu and Kashmir state. Bombings and shootings in Indonesia by the armed group calling itself Islamic State (IS) illustrated an utter disregard for the right to life. In Afghanistan armed groups carried out horrific attacks in the capital, Kabul, including on aid agency CARE International, which targeted civilians in an act that constituted a war crime.
The regional backdrop of repression, conflict and insecurity fuelled the global refugee crisis. Across the region, millions became refugees and asylum-seekers, forced from their homes often into appalling and life-threatening conditions. Many were stranded in precarious situations, vulnerable to myriad further abuses. In countries such as Australia and Thailand, governments exacerbated suffering by sending people back to countries where they risked human rights violations. Many others were displaced in their own countries.
Corporations were frequently active or complicit in abuses. The South Korean government allowed private companies to hinder lawful trade union activity, only belatedly addressing ill-health and even deaths caused by exposure to harmful products. In India, the US-based Dow Chemical Company and its subsidiary Union Carbide Corporation failed again to appear before a Bhopal court on criminal charges related to the 1984 gas leak disaster.
The region was frequently at odds with the global trend towards abolition of the death penalty. China remained the world's most prolific executioner, even though the actual figures remained a state secret. In Pakistan, the number of people executed – since 2014 when it lifted a moratorium on executions – rose to more than 400. In contravention of international standards, some of those executed were juveniles at the time of the offence, some had a mental disability, and others had been sentenced after unfair trials. In Japan, executions were shrouded in secrecy. In Maldives, officials threatened to resume executions after a 60-year moratorium. In the Philippines, draft legislation to reintroduce the death penalty was put before Congress. More positively, Nauru became the 103rd country to repeal the death penalty for all crimes.
Major developments included Myanmar's new quasi-civilian government to which Aung San Suu Kyi was appointed de facto leader, a role especially created for her after the National League for Democracy party's election victory in 2015. The new government took steps to improve human rights but faced daunting challenges bequeathed by half a century of repressive military rule. Its power was constrained by the military's enduring influence, including its control of key ministries and retention of a quarter of parliamentary seats. There was little improvement in Myanmar's ongoing conflicts, the Rohingya's plight, humanitarian assistance for displaced communities, impunity for human rights violators and reformation of repressive laws.
In the Philippines, state-sanctioned violence, typically in the form of unlawful killings, occurred on a massive scale under Rodrigo Duterte's presidency. The brutal crackdown on those suspected of involvement in drug crimes led to over 6,000 people killed in the so-called "war on drugs".
In February, the devastating impact of Cyclone Winston on Fiji highlighted the country's inadequate infrastructure when 62,000 people were displaced after their homes were destroyed; discrimination against some groups in aid distribution and a shortage of building materials failed those most in need.
In May, Sri Lanka ratified the International Convention against Enforced Disappearance. It remains to be seen whether Sri Lanka will make enforced disappearance a specific crime in its domestic law. Fiji ratified the UN Convention against Torture with reservations although accountability for torture and other ill-treatment was hindered by constitutional immunities and a lack of political will.
EAST ASIA
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
In East Asia, human rights defenders came under concerted attacks, with a narrowing space for civil society to raise issues deemed contentious by the authorities.
In China's continuing crackdown under Xi Jinping's rule, human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists and activists faced increasing and systematic intimidation and harassment, including arbitrary arrest and torture and other ill-treatment. Family members of those detained were also subject to police surveillance, harassment and restriction of their freedom of movement. The authorities increased the use of "residential surveillance at a designated location" which allowed police to hold individuals for up to six months outside the formal detention system, without access to legal counsel of their choice or their families. There was also an increase in detainees being forced to make televised "confessions". The authorities continued to block thousands of websites. In Guangdong province, China cracked down on workers and labour rights activists, frequently denying detainees access to lawyers on "national security" pretexts.
The Chinese government also drafted or enacted laws and regulations under the pretext of enhancing national security, but which could be used to silence dissent and suppress human rights defenders under broadly defined offences such as "inciting subversion" and "leaking state secrets". There were fears that the new Foreign Non-Governmental Organizations Management Law could be used to intimidate and prosecute human rights defenders and NGOs, and the new Cyber Security Law could undermine freedom of expression and privacy.
Yet activists dared to be innovative. Four human rights defenders were arrested for commemorating the 27th anniversary of the 4 June 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. They posted an online advertisement for a popular alcohol with a label reading "Remember, Eight Liquor Six Four" – a play on words in Chinese echoing the date of the notorious event, accompanied by "tank man's" picture. The action was covered widely on social media before being censored.
In October, Ilham Tohti – a well-known Uyghur intellectual who fostered dialogue between Uyghurs and Han Chinese – received the 2016 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders awarded for deep commitment in the face of great risk. He is currently serving a life sentence on "separatism" charges.
In Hong Kong, students Joshua Wong, Alex Chow and Nathan Law were convicted of "taking part in an unlawful assembly" in connection with their roles in the 2014 events that triggered the pro-democracy Umbrella Movement.
North Korea exercised extreme repression, violating almost the full spectrum of human rights. There were severe restrictions on freedom of expression and no domestic independent media or civil society organizations. Up to 120,000 individuals continued to be held in prison camps where torture and other ill-treatment, including forced labour, was widespread and routine. State control, oppression and intimidation intensified since Kim Jung-un came to power in 2011. The persistent stranglehold on use of communication technology – designed in part to isolate citizens and obscure the appalling human rights situation – continued. People caught using mobile phones to contact loved ones abroad faced incarceration in political prison camps or detention facilities.
In neighbouring South Korea, regressive human rights trends included restrictions on freedoms of peaceful assembly and expression which took new forms such as civil lawsuits. The authorities undercut press freedom through heavier interference with news reporting and the restriction on the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, often under the pretext of protecting public order.
The South Korean National Assembly passed an anti-terrorism law substantially expanding powers of surveillance of communications and the collection of personal information of people suspected of terrorist links.
In Mongolia, civil society organizations working for human rights protection faced regular intimidation, harassment and threats mainly by private actors.
In a positive development in Taiwan, the new government dropped charges against more than 100 protesters who participated in the 2014 student-led protests against the Cross Straits Services Trade Agreement between Taiwan and China, known as the "Sunflower Movement". The new Prime Minister, Lin Chuan, stated that the previous government's decision to charge the protesters was a "political reaction" rather than a "legal case".
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
Japan continued to reject most asylum applications. The South Korean immigration service held more than 100 asylum-seekers for months at Incheon International Airport, including 28 men from Syria whom a court eventually ruled should be released and allowed to apply for asylum. Dozens of asylum-seekers from other countries such as Egypt remained detained at the airport in inhumane conditions.
DISCRIMINATION
Japan's parliament passed its first national law against the advocacy of hatred or hate speech against residents of overseas origin and their descendants, following an increase in pro-discrimination demonstrations. Critics said the law was too narrow and did not contain penalties. Discrimination against sexual or ethnic minorities remained severe.
In China, freedom of religion was systematically violated. Draft amendments to legislation contained provisions to increase state power to control and sanction some religious practices, again in the name of national security to curb "infiltration and extremism". If passed it could be used to further supress in particular the rights to freedom of religion and of belief of Christian communities unrecognized by the state, Tibetan Buddhists and Uighur Muslims. In the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, the government detained ethnic Uighur writers and Uighur language website editors.
Ethnic Tibetans faced ongoing discrimination and restrictions on their rights to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, expression, association and peaceful assembly. Tibetan blogger Druklo was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for "inciting separatism", including for his online posts on religious freedom and the Dalai Lama. In the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, the government continued to violate the right to freedom of religion, and cracked down on unauthorized religious gatherings.
SOUTH ASIA
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
Human rights defenders were targeted for violations throughout South Asia in several ways. Governments used draconian legislation and new laws aimed at censoring online expression.
India used repressive laws to curb freedom of expression and silence critics. The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act was used to restrict civil society organizations receiving foreign funding, and to harass NGOs. The sedition law – used by the British to curb free expression during India's independence struggle – was deployed to harass critics. Human rights defenders also faced intimidation and attacks. Journalist Karun Mishra was killed by gunmen in Uttar Pradesh state, apparently for reporting on illegal soil mining. Rajdeo Ranjan, a journalist who had faced threats from political leaders for his writing, was also shot dead.
In Jammu and Kashmir, security forces used unnecessary or excessive force against demonstrators. The Jammu and Kashmir government also imposed a curfew for over two months. A suspension on private landline, mobile and internet service providers undermined a range of rights and residents said it left them unable to reach urgent medical assistance.
Pakistani media workers faced occupational hazards like abduction, arbitrary arrest and detention, intimidation, killings and harassment by state and non-state actors. A grenade attack on ARY TV's offices in the capital, Islamabad, was one of many strikes against media workers, and freedom of expression generally. Pamphlets left at the scene claimed that an armed group allied to IS was responsible.
In Sri Lanka, Sandhya Eknaligoda – wife of disappeared dissident cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda – faced repeated threats and other intimidation after the police identified seven suspects, members of army intelligence, in connection with his enforced disappearance. This intimidation included protests outside the court hearing her husband's habeas corpus case, and a poster campaign accusing her of supporting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Freedom of expression continued to be under attack in Bangladesh where the authorities grew increasingly intolerant of independent media and critical voices. Amid the severely deteriorating human rights situation, a string of journalists were arrested and arbitrarily detained; peaceful dissent was suppressed under draconian laws invoked to hound critics on social media. Student activist Dilip Roy was detained for criticizing the Prime Minister on Facebook, and faced a possible 14-year prison sentence under the vaguely worded Information and Communications Technology Act, used by the authorities to threaten and punish people who peacefully expressed views they disliked.
In Maldives, where human rights had been under increased attack in recent years, the government intensified assaults on freedoms of expression and assembly by imposing arbitrary restrictions to prevent protest. Authorities also silenced political opponents, human rights defenders, and journalists, using legislation criminalizing "defamatory" speech, remarks and other actions.
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
Due to its ongoing conflict, Afghanistan was the world's second-largest refugee-producing country. The crisis affected huge numbers of people with over two million in Pakistan and Iran alone and large numbers trying to reach the EU. An EU-Afghanistan deal required Afghanistan to re-admit any Afghan citizen who had not been granted asylum in the EU. However, continuing instability made it impossible for many refugees and asylum-seekers to return home voluntarily in safety.
Although Afghans risking their lives on dangerous journeys to Europe made headlines, the vast majority lacked the resources to leave. The number of people forced to flee their homes and becoming internally displaced reached an estimated 1.4 million in 2016, more than twice that of the three previous years. In the same three-year period, international aid to Afghanistan halved as donors' attention shifted following the withdrawal of international troops. The plight of those suffering in appalling conditions and struggling to survive in overcrowded camps with inadequate shelter, food, water and health care was at risk of being forgotten.
For Afghan refugees in Pakistan, the situation was bleak as the Pakistani government planned one of the largest forcible returns of refugees in modern history putting about 1.4 million people, whose registration was expected to expire at the end of the year, at risk. The authorities imposed several unfeasible deadlines, which they then reluctantly extended, for the return of refugees to Afghanistan. The move triggered waves of harassment from police and officials and the refugees were left trapped in the uncertain limbo of their camps.
In other instances, Pakistan breached the principle of non-refoulement and placed Afghan refugees at risk of serious abuses. For example, the decision to deport Sharbat Gula back to a country she had not seen in a generation and which her children had never known was emblematic of Pakistan's cruel treatment of Afghan refugees. She was the iconic "Afghan girl" featured on the cover of a 1985 National Geographic magazine, and was for decades the world's most famous refugee, a symbol of Pakistan's status as a generous host.
DISCRIMINATION
Thousands protested against discrimination and violence faced by Dalit communities. Marginalized communities continued to be frequently overlooked in the government's push for faster economic growth. Millions demonstrated against changes to labour laws. Black people faced racist harassment, discrimination and violence in various cities. Reports of violent crimes as well as sexual violence against women and girls rose while perpetrators enjoyed impunity, and women from marginalized communities faced systemic discrimination. Indian law criminalized soliciting in public places, leaving sex workers vulnerable to a range of abuses.
Section 377 of India's Penal Code continued to criminalize consensual same-sex relations, despite legal challenges before the Supreme Court. India's cabinet approved a flawed bill on transgender people's rights, which was criticized by activists for its problematic definition of transgender people and inadequate anti-discrimination provisions.
There was a spree of apparently militant-inspired killings and other attacks in Bangladesh, where the authorities arrested nearly 15,000 people in a delayed response to a spate of attacks against bloggers, atheists, foreign nationals and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people. The government frequently compromised its obligation to pursue those responsible using measures such as arbitrary and secret detention. Lack of protection for peaceful activists was further underscored by attacks for which no one was held accountable, such as the brutal killing of Xulhaz Mannan, editor of an LGBTI magazine, and his friend Tanay Mojumdar. Human rights activists under similar threat said that the police offered insufficient protection, while others were reluctant to approach the police fearing they would be charged or harassed.
In Sri Lanka, LGBTI people faced harassment, discrimination and violence. High levels of impunity persisted for perpetrators of violence against women and girls, including rape by military personnel, and inadequate efforts were made to address domestic violence. Tamils complained of ethnic profiling, surveillance and harassment by police suspecting them of LTTE links; the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination found that the Sri Lanka Prevention of Terrorism Act was used disproportionately against Tamils. Christians and Muslims were reportedly harassed, threatened and attacked including by supporters of hardline Sinhala Buddhist political groups, with police failing to act or blaming religious minorities for inciting opponents to violence.
SOUTHEAST ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
Human rights defenders were under threat in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, Viet Nam and other countries including through increased use of new or existing laws which criminalized peaceful expression.
In Thailand, ongoing suppression of peaceful dissent since the 2014 military coup created an environment in which few dared to criticize the authorities publicly. Human rights defenders faced charges of criminal defamation for speaking out about violations or for supporting vulnerable individuals and communities. The government moved to shut down debate ahead of a referendum on a draft Constitution; in one example, around a dozen people commenting on the proposed Constitution on Facebook were detained or charged, and faced up to 10 years' imprisonment under a draconian new government order.
Crackdowns on freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly intensified ahead of Cambodia's elections planned for 2017/2018, and the authorities increasingly abused the criminal justice system. The security forces harassed and punished civil society in attempts to silence critics; human rights defenders were threatened, arrested and detained for their peaceful work; and the political opposition was targeted, with activists and officials imprisoned after unfair trials. The authorities continued to hinder peaceful protest.
In Malaysia, attempts to choke peaceful dissent and freedom of speech included the widespread use of national security legislation and other restrictive laws. Rafizi Ramli – a whistle-blowing parliamentarian who exposed information about major corruption – was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Journalists at news site Malaysiakini faced intimidation and threats from vigilantes.
In Viet Nam, human rights defenders faced threats and attacks. Prisoners of conscience were held in prisons and detention centres, and subjected to enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment, including torture with electricity, severe beatings, prolonged solitary confinement sometimes in total darkness and silence, and denial of medical treatment.
The Vietnamese authorities also oversaw suppression of peaceful protesters. As the country hosted a visit by US President Barack Obama in May, the authorities arrested, intimidated and harassed peaceful activists.
Myanmar's new National League for Democracy-led government took steps to amend long-standing repressive laws targeting activists and media workers. Yet cases like the detention of two media workers in November, on suspicion of "online defamation" over an article on allegations of government corruption, showed that much more needed to be done.
Security forces in Timor-Leste were accused of unlawful killings, torture and other ill-treatment, arbitrary arrests, and the arbitrary restriction of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. Fiji's media was affected by arbitrary restrictions curtailing freedom of expression, with journalists fined and imprisoned. Bloggers and dissidents in Singapore were harassed and prosecuted.
Human rights defenders and journalists in the Philippines were targeted and killed by unidentified gunmen and armed militia.
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
Australia maintained its abusive offshore immigration processing regime on Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. Australia's transfer agreement with Nauru contravened international law and effectively trapped refugees and asylum-seekers in an open-air prison. Although not technically detained, these people could not leave and were isolated on the remote Pacific island of Nauru, even when officially recognized as refugees.
The Australian government's policy of "processing" refugees and asylum-seekers on Nauru involved a deliberate and systematic regime of neglect and cruelty, designed to inflict suffering: the system amounted to torture under international law. It minimized protection and maximized harm and was constructed to prevent some of the world's most vulnerable people from seeking safety in Australia.
Mental illness and self-harm among refugees and asylum-seekers in Nauru were commonplace. Omid Masoumali, an Iranian refugee, died after setting himself on fire. Others, including children, suffered inadequate health care, persistent verbal and physical attacks, pervasive hostility, and arbitrary arrests and detentions, with systematic impunity for these types of abuses.
Australia refused to close its centres on Nauru and Manus Island and even planned to introduce a law permanently banning those trapped there from getting an Australian visa, piling injustice onto injustice in violation of international law.
New Zealand publicly reiterated an agreement made with Australia in 2013 to annually resettle 150 refugees from Nauru and Manus Island, although Australia since refused to carry out the deal.
Conditions in Malaysia's overcrowded immigration detention centres were harsh. One thousand people, including over 400 Rohingya – who had been stranded off Malaysia's coastline until the authorities agreed to accept them in May 2015 – endured prolonged detention for over a year in harsh conditions. In June, the majority of the Rohingya were released and some were resettled.
Thailand's lack of legal framework, processes or procedures for hosting refugees and asylum-seekers left many vulnerable to arbitrary detention and other violations of their rights. In the absence of a recognized legal status under Thai law, refugees and asylum-seekers, including children, continued to be treated as irregular migrants and under the Immigration Act could be detained indefinitely in immigration detention centres, which might not meet international standards of detention.
Scores of Rohingya from Myanmar were among those detained in immigration centres, having been held since their arrival by boat in 2015.
The Indonesian authorities engaged in crude intimidation tactics in Aceh, including by endangering the lives of a group of over 40 Sri Lankan Tamil asylum-seekers – among them were a heavily pregnant woman and nine children – by firing warning shots and threatening to push them back out to sea, in violation of international law.
DISCRIMINATION
Tens of thousands of people from Myanmar's Rohingya minority fled northern Rakhine State, where security forces mounted reprisal attacks in response to an assault on three border outposts which killed nine police officers in October. The security forces, led by the military, randomly fired at villagers, torched hundreds of homes, carried out arbitrary arrests, and raped women and girls. Villagers were placed under night curfews and humanitarian agencies were barred from the area. The response amounted to collective punishment of the entire Rohingya community in northern Rakhine State and may have amounted to crimes against humanity. Many Rohingya refugees and asylum-seekers who made it to Bangladesh in desperate need of humanitarian assistance were pushed back into Myanmar.
The crisis arose in a context of unrelenting and severe discrimination against the Rohingya community, in which a number of rights including freedom of movement remained restricted. There was also continuing religious intolerance – exacerbated in recent years by the previous government's failure to effectively investigate violent incidents – often fuelled by hardline Buddhist nationalist groups and directed particularly against Muslims.
The Indonesian authorities often appeared to be more concerned about hardline religious groups than respecting and protecting human rights. For example, the Governor of Jakarta, the capital, a Christian and the first member of Indonesia's ethnic Chinese community to be elected to that position, underwent a criminal investigation on suspicion of "blasphemy". Discrimination against LGBTI people increased after officials made inflammatory, grossly inaccurate and misleading statements.
In Papua New Guinea violence against women was widespread and sex workers were beaten, raped, arbitrarily detained and killed without recourse to justice. They were not adequately protected largely because of laws criminalizing sex work, the stigmatization of sex work and social and cultural norms.
The UN Human Rights Committee and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child criticized New Zealand's high rates of incarceration, child poverty and domestic violence of Indigenous Māori. Sexual and other physical violence against women and girls also remained widespread despite wide recognition of the problem and efforts to address it.
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