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NORTHEAST ASIA
Stopping “forced relocations” in the guise of ecological protection
The Chinese government must impose a moratorium on the forced relocations in Tibet – seen as part of the larger systemic repression of this group – and stop pressuring Tibetans to “consent” to such plans without adequate compensation and legal remedies.
This was the call of Human Rights Watch, which published a report on May 21 showing that the Chinese government’s “whole-village relocation” programs in Tibet were not only compulsory but were systematically carried out through “extreme forms of persuasion” such as repeated home visits, undermining the villagers’ agency, and implicit threats of punishment.
“The mass relocations of rural Tibetan villages are severely eroding Tibetan culture and ways of life,” said HRW interim China director Maya Wang. “China’s government should suspend relocations in Tibet until an independent, expert review of existing policies and practices is carried out to determine their compliance with Chinese law and standards and international law concerning relocations and forced evictions.”
The relocation programs are part of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s broader migration program, which started in the 1950s, targeting populations that live in areas where soil and water cannot support the local people.
These “whole-village relocation” programs, HRW said, amounts to forced eviction in violation of international law. The international nonprofit found evidence that many villagers endured intrusive home visits, and were warned that essential services would be cut from their current homes if they didn’t move.
According to official statistics, Chinese authorities plan to relocate over 930,000 rural Tibetans between 2000 and 2025. More than 709,000 of these relocations (76%) have taken place since 2016 ostensibly to “improve people’s livelihood” and “protect the ecological environment.”
But scientific studies, including by Chinese researchers, show that Beijing’s resource extraction activities has been a major driver of ecological destruction in these areas.
In 2018, the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) reported on the first wave of the migration policy in the highlands, which removed over 1,000 Tibetan nomadic pastoralists from the grasslands they protected for centuries. During this period, China has also launched a “Tibetan Development Plan” encouraging Han Chinese to migrate into Tibetan lands.
ICT president Matteo Mecacci slammed the policy as a “concrete threat to the existence of an ancient civilization … [It] is crystal clear that the biggest threats to Tibet’s fragile ecosystem is certainly not posed by Tibetan nomads, but by Beijing development policies.”
SOUTHEAST ASIA
Saving female asylum seekers
A panel of U.N. experts have called on Malaysia to address gaps in its gender discrimination policies, particularly those affecting female asylum seekers and refugees, who continue to bear the brunt of the Southeast Asian country’s lack of a legal framework for refugees.
On May 22, Malaysia faced the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) for its sixth periodic review of its response to the panel’s recommendations to address gender discrimination – including its policies for refugees and asylum seekers.
Currently, Malaysia is home to at least 185,000 registered refugees – the highest number in Southeast Asia. Most of them are Rohingya refugees who have fled Myanmar.
To date the Southeast Asian country still has no formal framework for refugees, as it has yet to sign the 1951 Refugee Convention. While registered refugees see some measure of support – like limited access to health care, education, and other services provided by the U.N., they are generally treated no differently from undocumented migrants.
Such a situation has translated into grave consequences for the women, who are “unable to access health care because of their status as refugees and asylum seekers,” the panel noted during the CEDAW review.
Several studies support this. In 2022, researchers Surendran Rajaratnam and Azlinda Azman published a report saying that women and girls among Rohingya refugees fell prey to marital rape, domestic violence, child rape, and sexual assaults. But access to public hospitals was not an option due to risks of being arrested, detained, or refused treatment.
Against this backdrop, the panel asked whether Malaysia was willing to exempt asylum seekers and migrants from having to pay higher hospital fees and deposits compared to Malaysian nationals, and to repeal a health ministry directive requiring public hospitals to report undocumented patients to the immigration department.
In response, Malaysian minister for women, family, and community development Nancy Shukri said they were open to repealing that directive, and stressed that the state has opened up shelter homes with child care facilities, with plans of expanding more.
But at the Universal Periodic Review held in January, Malaysia’s representative, Foreign Affairs Ministry deputy secretary-general Datuk Bala Chandran Tharman said the country was standing pat on its policies for refugees. He stressed that Malaysia’s asylum seeker population was straining its resources at a time when the country was dealing with high national debt.
SOUTH ASIA
An earnest appeal to save the world’s largest democracy
As millions of Indians head to vote in the penultimate round of the country’s six-week election, opposition figures are making an eleventh-hour plea to the voters to “vote against dictatorship” and to “save democracy” – an undisguised jab against the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
In separate statements released in the past week, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal rallied Indian voters to protect the world’s largest democracy and to stop the BJP from sailing to a comfortable win.
“In this great festival of democracy, each of your votes will be against dictatorial thinking and strengthen the Indian democracy and constitution. Go to the polling booth and show with your vote that there is democracy in India, and democracy will remain,” Kejriwal said.
Gandhi, meanwhile, campaigned for the opposition coalition Congress party, saying: “This election is to save the democracy and Constitution of the country. This election is being contested on issues like unemployment, inflation and attack on constitutional institutions. You have to play your part in this fight.”
Most surveys and opinion polls have predicted another victory for the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is running for a third consecutive term.
While this may imply that most voters remain satisfied with the BJP even as India battles economic distress, rising unemployment, and inflation rates, lower voter turnout also raised questions about the growing apathy – and worsening heat records – in the South Asian country.
Other observers suggest that the BJP was expected to do well not because of its “explicitly Hindu-nationalist agenda.” It prides itself on having reinforced its “organizational strength, promoted meritocracy within its ranks, widened its voter base, and competently delivered benefits to the poor,” said Project Syndicate, an international media outfit.
India has dramatically slid in democratic rankings since Modi assumed power ten years ago. In 2014, India was ranked “Free” by Freedom House with high scores in political and civil liberties – but it has since been characterized as “Partly Free” ten years later.
Observers also warned against a future with both the BJP and Modi staying in power, citing how they have weaponized “divisive rhetoric and majoritarian policies, which may have short-term electoral gains but are detrimental in the long run.” Modi, after all, became notorious for going after his opponents with an iron fist, using both force and lawfare to muzzle opposition.
GLOBAL / REGIONAL
Clearing a path one landmine at a time
In war-torn regions in Asia-Pacific, daily life remains a minefield as unexploded bombs linger even long after fighting ceases.
With landmines and unexploded ordnance still continuing to kill and maim thousands of civilians in the region, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has called on governments to comply with international humanitarian law and take measures to minimize their risks and effects both during and after hostilities.
The ICRC report, “Double Jeopardy: During and After Conflict,” chose case studies from Afghanistan, Cambodia, Myanmar, Pakistan, and the Philippines, which all have histories or ongoing conflicts that made use of landmines and other explosive ordnance that remain uncleared to this day.
“Efforts to clear explosive ordnance from past and ongoing conflicts must be sustained and ideally scaled up. This requires a steadfast commitment from both national and international communities, adequate funding and partnership among affected countries and other parties concerned,” said Stefaan Landerloos, regional expert in explosive weapons.
The impact of these war remnants are especially severe in Afghanistan – where 447 children were either killed or injured by explosive ordnance in 2023 alone – and Myanmar, where 1,052 people were killed or maimed in the same year.
Cambodia, in particular, is believed to still have millions of unexploded landmines due in large part to the long civil war between rebels and the Khmer Rouge.
Globally, one person is killed or injured by such war remnants every hour, with millions trapped in poverty and fear especially in conflict-ridden countries. Rights groups consider their mere existence to be a human rights issue because of their indiscriminate nature – they target both soldiers and children even after the war has ended.
Last year, the Landmine Monitor group published a report listing the countries producing antipersonnel mines – which in Asia include China, India, Myanmar, North Korea, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, and Vietnam – that were still not parties to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty prohibiting.
Just last April 4 – the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action – the Universal Rights Group stressed that landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) have devastating and long-term consequences for people’s basic rights, including life, safety, health, food, water, work, and education. Children are especially at risk because they might come across these explosives while playing or walking to school.
