January 8 to 14, 2024

NORTHEAST ASIA

Curbing a growing social problem

Amid persistent cases of online defamation in Japan, particularly among young people, the Japanese government wants to require social media platforms to “promptly respond” and better regulate claims against such issues. 

On Jan. 9, Nikkei Asia reported that the government, via the internal affairs ministry, would submit a legislative proposal during the next Diet session on Jan. 26 covering guidelines for “deleting posts deemed to constitute online defamation, respond to claims of online defamation within a week, and disclose information regarding the measures.”

Such regulations, the report said, will target major tech giants like Meta, Google, and X. The proposed measures will require platforms to define what constitutes online defamation and set transparent criteria for removing harmful content. 

The initiative appears to stem from a worrying trend in Japan, where, according to a survey conducted by Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication in August last year, 18 percent of social media users experienced online defamation over a one-year period, according to data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. 

The proposed legislation is expected to hold platform companies accountable for the perceived inadequacy of their content moderation efforts – specifically on X, whose users, based on the survey, citing 54 percent of the respondents, are most likely to complain about defamation.

A Jan. 16 editorial from Mainichi noted that while platform companies have been acting on deletion requests, “the standards … have been unclear, inviting distrust from victims.” 

The Ministry of Justice has also recognized that online defamation as well as other cybercrimes have become a “social problem” that could violate people’s rights to privacy and against discrimination.

One such case had been that of a 22-year-old female pro-wrestler who committed suicide in 2020 after receiving hundreds of hateful online messages a day following her appearance on a reality TV show. 

Her death later prompted the Japanese government to pass tougher penalties on criminal defamation in 2022. Under the new amendment, convicted offenders can now be jailed up to one year or fined 300,000 yen (US$2,200) – a move that rights watchdog Civicus Monitor has reported as disproportionate and antithetical to the global movement to decriminalize defamation. 

It’s currently unclear whether the draft measures would contain criminal provisions. But even now, victims of defamation often find it arduous to file suits, in large part because many of the platforms are based in the United States and China and therefore must go through the country’s Foreign Ministry.   

SOUTHEAST ASIA

A challenge to break away

For a time, it seemed that Thailand’s new prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, might just help the country break away from the country’s abusive past under the previous leadership of Prayuth Chan-o-cha. The 60-year-old political greenhorn had, after all, campaigned on a platform of social justice and human rights, and even sworn to never form a coalition with Prayuth’s party.

But months after taking power, his government had yet to enact meaningful reforms or address past injustices, prompting the international watchdog Human Rights Watch to challenge him to “adopt real rights reforms and end politically motivated prosecutions.” 

“[Srettha] should demonstrate that he’s breaking from Thailand’s abusive past,” said HRW Asia director Elaine Pearson. “Thai authorities should drop the charges against peaceful protesters and those accused of ‘insulting the monarchy’ brought by the previous Prayuth government since 2021.”

The call is part of HRW’s World Report 2024 summarizing human rights conditions and challenges in over 100 countries in the past year. In Thailand’s case, HRW noted that at least 258 people were charged under the draconian Section 112 of the Penal Code (otherwise known as the lese-majeste law), which could lead to a maximum jail sentence of 15 years. 

Of these cases, said the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), courts have already delivered verdicts in cases involving 100 defendants, 79 of which were found guilty. The longest prison term handed down was 28 years. 

The abolition of the lese-majeste law has been a longstanding call by Thais, especially the youth, who say it infringes on freedom of expression. But whether Srettha would rise to HRW’s challenge remains to be seen. As a PM candidate, Srettha had said his party would oppose any change to the lese-majeste law, which was used to sentence a Move Forward MP to six years in jail last December. 

Srettha also said that the current efforts to amend the army-drafted constitution will not include demands for monarchy reforms, which had been central to the youth-led protests in 2020. 

Too, despite these and the impunity for human rights abuses in Thailand – including reports of returning refugees and fleeing activists back to China or Laos; and enforced disappearances of nine dissidents – Srettha announced that Thailand would make an election bid for the U.N. Human Rights Council for the 2025-2027 term.

SOUTH ASIA

Ending a failed war

Several rights groups as well as the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), have called on Sri Lanka to abolish its anti-drug campaign amid reports of arbitrary arrests, torture, invasive searches, and inhumane treatment of suspects.

On Jan. 12, a global coalition of at least 33 rights groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) called out the island country’s government over Operation “Yukthiya,” a massive operation led by acting Inspector General of Police Deshabandu Tennekoon supposedly to nab drug trafficking rings.

Since it was launched on Dec. 17, 2023, over 29,000 suspects have already been arrested, according to the OHCHR, with over 1,000 suspects snagged within just 24 hours between Jan. 2 and Jan. 3. 

Many of them were subjected to warrantless searches or “degrading treatment” like strip searches, the coalition said. 

In some cases, people were apprehended “even when no drugs were found in their possession – simply for having been arrested for drug offenses or having been sent to compulsory rehabilitation in the past,” they said. 

These mass arrests are seen to exacerbate the already dismal conditions in Sri Lanka’s overcrowded jails, where the congestion rate has exceeded 200 percent. 

“While drug use presents a serious challenge to society, a heavy-handed law enforcement approach is not the solution,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesperson Liz Throssell. “People suspected of selling or trafficking drugs are entitled to humane treatment, with full respect for due process and transparent, fair trials.”

Sri Lanka is among Asian countries whose war on drugs are propped up on brutal policies like death penalties, bloody crackdowns, and drug criminalization. 

The Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia are particularly notorious for their harsh anti-drug policies, which have led to thousands killed. 

The OHCHR, together with many other agencies, has been lobbying for drug policies, which are essentially rights-based measures such as the decriminalization of drug use, provision of public health education, and championing voluntary drug treatment. Such changes are rooted in the concept of harm reduction, which seeks to minimize the health, social, and legal impacts associated with drug use. 

GLOBAL/REGIONAL

A push for equality

As the world aspires to ramp up efforts to mitigate climate change, two scientists shine a light on an oft-forgotten roadblock to averting further warming: inequality. 

In a Jan. 15 commentary for The Conversation, University of Oxford researcher Emma Garnett and University of Cambridge postdoctoral research fellow Charlotte Kukowski challenged the global community to “confront the enormous gulf in wealth and resources separating the richest and poorest people – both within countries and between them” to more effectively roll out solutions to climate change. 

“The planet’s dwindling resources are being squandered by a rich minority. Reining in their emissions and redistributing their power and influence would help everyone live more sustainably so that the planet can support a decent life for all,” they said.

In their recent research published in the Nature Climate Change journal, they argued that existing inequities significantly hinder individuals’ ability to adopt low-carbon behaviors, jeopardizing the world’s collective path to net-zero emissions.

The problem goes beyond the simple observation that wealthy individuals generate more emissions, they said. Various forms of inequality, from income disparities to limited access to public transportation and energy-efficient housing, disproportionately burden those with less.

It’s been widely recognized that the impact of climate change falls unevenly, with certain populations like the poor, women, children, Indigenous peoples, and people with disabilities often most at risk to its impacts. 

This disparity is even more pronounced in Asia, one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change, with large countries like China and India generating the bulk of the region’s emissions while poorer ones like the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Pakistan bear the brunt of climate-related impacts. Other countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam are expected to be more reliant on coal. 

However, the impact of inequality on individual agency in tackling this global scourge hasn’t been given the attention it deserves, Kukowski said in a separate interview for Earth.com.

The study cites, for example, people living paycheck to paycheck, who cannot afford upgrading to energy-efficient appliances to shrink their carbon footprint.

This reality demands a shift in focus, the researchers said. To achieve net-zero emissions, policymakers must acknowledge the limitations imposed by inequality and tailor solutions that address systemic barriers. These could involve subsidies for green technologies, investments in accessible public transportation, and flexible work arrangements that empower individuals to make sustainable choices.