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NORTHEAST ASIA

Urgent aid needed for devastating ‘dzud’
As Mongolia grapples with a particularly severe cold wave that has left many struggling to afford food and basic necessities, aid agencies have called for urgent support, especially for children and herders, the most affected by this phenomenon.
In its 2024 Dzud Response Plan for Mongolia, U.N. resident coordinator Tapan Mishra stressed the need for “international assistance and the mobilization of additional resources to prevent a further deterioration in the humanitarian situation in Mongolia.”
These include cash, medical supplies and first aid kits, food and vitamins, educational materials for children, and veterinary care kits for livestock.
These are the immediate needs of the over 188,300 people, including 80,215 children, grappling with “dzud” – the local term for a peculiar slow-onset disaster unique to the northeastern country. It’s characterized by extreme winters creating deep snow covers that are hard to thaw, making it difficult for animals to reach pasture.
The U.N. estimates that over 5.2 million livestock have perished so far in the current extreme winter – a severe blow to a country where herding is the primary livelihood.
“We’re seeing widespread devastation and impact on children and families in Mongolia because of dzud,” said Bayan-Altai Luvsandorj, country manager and representative, Save the Children Japan (Mongolia office):
“Herding and livestock have traditionally been a big part of Mongolia’s culture and traditional way of living but the loss of so many animals could … [plunge] some families into poverty and unemployment.”
Such extreme weather events are expected only once every 10 years – but Mongolia has endured five dzuds in the past decade alone due to climate change.
Aside from Mongolia, South Asian countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan have also been hit by extreme cold snaps, exacerbated by a vicious cycle of climate change and poor governance that leaves many poor and marginalized communities unable to cope with these changes.
Experts fear that if governments do not invest in renewable energy, social safety nets, and community-based solutions to break this cycle, climate change will increase the risk of bigger problems: political and social unrest, displacement, and food insecurity.
Humanitarian assistance “has to be complemented with the building of longer-term capacity and resilience in the country,” said U.N. Development Program resident coordinator Matilda Dimovska. “For that, comprehensive policy is needed.”
SOUTHEAST ASIA

Axing a “revived” campaign
Rights advocates in the Philippines have sounded the alarm on the “revival” of the brutal drug war in the southern Davao City, hometown of former President Rodrigo Duterte, who mounted a brutal six-year national anti-drug campaign that killed thousands.
On March 26, the Philippine Commission on Human Rights (CHR) announced that it was opening a probe into the deaths of five drug suspects in Davao City days after Duterte’s son, and incumbent mayor Sebastian Duterte, declared he would resume his father’s drug war in the city.
“While (we) recognize the gravity of the drug problem in the country, [we] reiterate that putting the law in someone’s hands will not resolve the problem as it only perpetuates the culture of impunity, violence, fear, and threat,” the CHR said.
This campaign – begun and pursued ruthlessly by the elder Duterte since 2001 (he served 22 years in total as Davao mayor from 1988-1998; 2001-2010; and 2013-2016) – was later implemented nationwide during his presidency (2016-2022).
A wave of extrajudicial killings, particularly drug war deaths, followed soon afterward, with estimates ranging from 6,252 (according to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency) to 12,000-30,000 during the elder Duterte administration, according to rights groups
Human Rights Watch senior researcher Carlos Conde echoed the sentiment of human rights advocates, saying the drug war “will only worsen the already dire human rights situation in the city.”
Even before the younger Duterte announced the campaign’s “revival” in his locality, Davao City had consistently topped the deadliest cities in the country in terms of drug-related deaths, according to an independent monitoring by the University of the Philippines’ Dahas project.
Conde urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who had pledged a rights-based approach to the drug war, to rescind all policies legitimizing the drug war and to order the police to stand down.
Nevertheless, human rights lawyer Neri Colmenares, who counsels the drug war victims who filed a complaint alleging crimes against humanity against Duterte before the International Criminal Court (ICC), said the revival of the campaign in Davao could be used to convince the court that the killings were still happening in the country and thus speed up its ongoing investigation into the former president’s drug war.
SOUTH ASIA

A call for reforms, halt to abuses
A month after Pakistan’s disputed elections, international rights group Amnesty International (AI) has lobbied the newly formed government – a coalition of the country’s two major dynastic parties – to put human rights high on its policy agenda.
On March 25, the watchdog published a 10-point Human Rights Charter for newly elected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif – brother of outgoing Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif – who has yet to name a human rights minister in his federal cabinet.
Among others, the charter enjoined the government to lift all repressive measures against free expression, such as criminal defamation, blasphemy law, and its ban on social media platforms like X.
It also urged the reversal of the Pakistani government’s forcible deportation of Afghan refugees and to suspend all military trials of civilians, which are secretive and afford no right to appeal.
“Pakistan is faced with considerable economic, social, civil, political, and climate-related challenges, and the new government must consider the human rights impact of all policies and proposed laws as a central part of decision making,” AI said.
Even before Sharif rose to power, Pakistan had been roiled over allegations of human rights abuses especially in the lead-up to the elections.
Just last February, the U.N. Human Rights Office flagged reports of harassment, arrests and detention of leaders and supporters of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party led by former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Khan himself is facing multiple legal cases and long prison terms, in what critics say is a bid to block the still-popular leader from resurging to power.
Sectarian violence against religious minorities also remains commonplace, with the country’s draconian blasphemy laws often “leveled as a way to pressure opponents in disputes, including by top political leaders,” reported Al Jazeera.
In its 2023 report on Pakistan, Human Rights Watch said Pakistan’s law enforcement agencies were “responsible for grave human rights violations, including detention without charges and extrajudicial killings.”
Rights groups, however, have expressed hope that PTI’s upset victory during the last elections could prompt the coalition government to ensure a rights-based approach to governance as it navigates one of its worst economic and political crises in history.
GLOBAL / REGIONAL

Stopping the junta’s third-biggest backers
As Myanmar’s junta appears to be at a turning point in its oppressive rule, a local human rights group has urged India to stop aiding the junta and being complicit in the regime’s crimes against humanity.
On March 27, Justice For Myanmar (JFM) called on the Indian government to immediately declare an arms embargo on Myanmar’s military and to cease all military training and support for the junta.
“By providing arms, equipment and technology to the Myanmar military, India is directly supporting the junta’s brutal attacks against the people, aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity,” it said in a statement.
JFM’s call complements its investigation into Indian state-invested companies (public service undertakings, or PSUs) that have supplied military items or pursued business with the junta since the 2021 coup.
JFM has found evidence of India’s air force supplying equipment to its counterpart in Myanmar in January 2024, potentially for use in airstrikes. There was also evidence of ongoing arms sales by other PSUs including fighter jet spare parts.
A report by the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) in 2022 named India as the third biggest supplier of arms and equipment to Myanmar after Russia and China. Critics argue that this was tantamount to supporting a campaign of terror the junta is waging across the country even as the people overwhelmingly reject the military’s February 2021 coup attempt.
Beyond Myanmar, the world’s biggest democracies – particularly the United States – have been in fact arming authoritarian governments even as they publicly denounce violations of international law. A study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, for example, showed that South Korea, along with China (arguably an autocratic country), is among the world’s 10 biggest arms exporters to undemocratic states.
Elsewhere in Asia, Indonesia – the world’s third largest democracy – has been the object of complaints alleging that state-owned defense companies had sold weapons to Myanmar.
Rights groups fear the continued supply of arms to a failing junta could reverse their losses and prolong the conflict.
Recently, after losing much ground to pro-democracy fighters, the junta has engaged in increasing brutality such as public executions of resistance fighters and burning down entire villages in a desperate bid to stay in power.