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NORTHEAST ASIA
Stronger protection for women
Alarmed by the rise in violence against women and children, a Macau-based women’s rights organization has called on the special administrative region’s government to enact stiffer penalties for perpetrators and expand support services for victims.
On March 13, the Women’s Association called for a two-pronged approach to dealing with domestic violence: firstly, by initiating a review of existing laws to enact harsher punishments like preventive detention of abusers, raising the maximum sentence limit and eliminating suspended sentences, while also raising more awareness and beefing up support systems for victims.
“Existing laws and administrative measures must be reviewed in a timely manner, and try to increase the deterrent effect of these crimes, as well as improve support and protection for victims,” Loi I-weng, the group’s vice president, said in a statement.
Loi’s statement – which coincides with International Women’s Month – was prompted by worrying government statistics showing that child sexual abuses jumped 33 percent in 2023. Meanwhile, the city recorded nine domestic violence cases in the first quarter of 2023 alone after seeing 39 cases in 2022.
Loi, who also sits on the government’s Council for Women and Children’s Affairs, warns that current laws and support systems may be inadequate.
The U.N. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) voiced similar concerns in its report last year, saying that the city’s law on preventing domestic violence appears to be “insufficiently implement(ed) in the context of a relatively high report rate with conversely proportionate low investigation and low prosecution rate.”
In an interview with The Macau Post Daily, Agnes Lam Iok Fong of the University of Macau’s Center for Macau Studies, said Macau’s weakened economy especially after the pandemic led to some men “dealing with family pressure in the wrong way, leading to domestic abuse.”
A U.N. Women study in 2021 called domestic violence a “shadow pandemic” as one in every three women experienced abuse during COVID-19 as restricted movement and stay-at-home measures forced families to spend close contact amid stressors like financial troubles and job losses.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
Justice for Somchai 20 years on
Two decades since prominent Thai human rights lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit was forcibly disappeared in Bangkok, international human rights groups are renewing calls for a proper investigation and accountability for his disappearance.
On March 12 – the 20th anniversary of his disappearance – U.N. experts as well as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW), International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Union for Civil Liberty (UCL), and Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) called on the Thai government to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which mandates its signatory states to criminalize enforced disappearances and to conduct thorough investigations in all cases.
Thailand signed the ICPPED in 2012 but has yet to ratify it.
“The case is glaringly emblematic of adverse and long-lasting impacts of an enforced disappearance on family members of the victims. It is a violation of their absolute rights to truth and justice,” the U.N. experts said.
Somchai, known for defending Muslim communities in Thailand’s southern provinces, vanished on March 12, 2004. Eyewitnesses reported seeing him forced into a car on a busy Bangkok street. Despite strong evidence suggesting his death, his body has never been found.
Five police officers were initially accused of involvement in his disappearance, but they were all acquitted. Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra even acknowledged government involvement, yet no concrete action followed.
In 2016, the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) declared the case closed, leaving Somchai’s family and human rights advocates without answers.
His case has since become a symbol of impunity in the country, where there have been at least 76 cases of enforced disappearances since 1980, HRW noted. None have been resolved and no one has ever been punished despite the passage of a domestic law criminalizing enforced disappearances.
Thai activists who have sought refuge in other Southeast Asian countries are not safe either, as was the case of Wuthipong Kachathamakul, who was snatched by Thai-speaking armed men in Laos in 2017; Surachai Danwattananusorn, who disappeared in Laos in 2019; and exiled activist Wanchalearm Satsaksit, who disappeared in Cambodia in 2020.
The country’s dismal record will be under scrutiny as it plans to win a seat at the U.N. Human Rights Council for 2025-2027.
SOUTH ASIA
Civil society in the crosshairs
Over a year since the ouster of its former president, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka’s democratic progress appears to be stalling as the current government seeks to pass yet another law that would cripple civil society further.
On March 12, Human Rights Watch urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to pressure Sri Lanka into abandoning the proposed Non-Governmental Organizations (Registration and Supervision) Act, which, if passed in its current form, would effectively control and interfere with civil society organization activities.
Among the draft law’s most contentious provisions, HRW told IMF Sri Lanka resident representative Peter Breuer in a letter, are mandatory registration for organizations; appointing the minister of public security in regulating the sector; excessive restrictions on fundraising; and granting police the power to enter and search NGO premises without a warrant.
“The proposed law does not address any evident need, but instead seeks to subject CSOs to invasive government scrutiny,” the group said.
IMF recently granted Sri Lanka a US$3 billion bailout to help it weather its economic crisis triggered by its 2022 sovereign debt default.
Ironically, HRW argued, the proposed law would hinder CSO work to fill the gaps left behind by the government in terms of service provision and support for marginalized communities, and therefore hurt its chances for economic recovery.
Last month, Sri Lankan lawyers and activists also raised objections against the proposed law, which seeks to repeal and replace the Voluntary Social Service Organizations Act of 1980. Beyond its questionable provisions, the group flagged the “complete lack of meaningful consultative process” in the drafting.
On March 1, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk similarly expressed deep concern over the same bill, as well as the island country’s Online Safety Act, which creates vaguely defined speech-related offenses such as “prohibited statements” or “communicating a false statement”; Anti-Terrorism Bill, which is said to have an overbroad definition of “terrorism”; and the Electronic Media Broadcasting Bill, which imposes new requirements for media outlets in the country).
These laws or bills, Turk said, “grant broad powers to the security forces, and severely restrict rights to freedom of assembly, association and expression, impacting not only on civic space but the business environment.”
GLOBAL / REGIONAL
An appeal against veto power abuse
The year 2023 was mired in conflict and humanitarian crises – which only served to unravel the “hypocrisy of powerful countries” when it comes to observing rule of law and respecting human rights.
This was the finding of CIVICUS’ 13th annual State of Civil Society Report, which called for a more “democratic, effective and robust global governance system” to make sure that accountability for atrocities are not held hostage by only powerful nations.
This means, for example, abolishing the veto system at the powerful U.N. Security Council and making sure that civil society is always represented, especially when it comes to seeking accountability for human rights violations.
“Armies, rebels and militia around the world committed horrific human rights abuses in 2023 because they knew they could get away with it thanks to a flailing international system full of double standards,” said Mandeep Tiwana, CIVICUS chief officer of Evidence and Engagement. “Starting with the U.N. Security Council, we need global governance reform that puts people at the center of decision making.”
The report was a scathing condemnation of how powerful countries like the United States, Russia, and China demonstrated “selective respect” for rule of law by shielding allies while also castigating enemies.
This was clearest, for example, in how the United States and the United Kingdom repeatedly vetoed calls for a ceasefire in the war-torn Gaza Strip, where Israel’s siege has killed over 25,000 Palestinians – while also rallying the rest of the world to stand in solidarity with Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion.
Russia, in turn, has been vetoing resolutions condemning its invasion. China, the only permanent Asian member with veto powers, has blocked further sanctions against North Korea and Myanmar.
These veto-wielding countries, along with France, are part of the “P5” in the U.N. Security Council, whose resolutions are binding on member states. This means that they’re able to block action that goes against their interest, fueling scholars’ views that the U.N. body was “explicitly structured to be deadlocked.”
The proposal to abolish the veto system has been floated over the years by both the U.N. and several Global South countries, which have complained that the P5 system has only led to deadlocks in settling global conflicts.
