July 8-14, 2024

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NORTHEAST ASIA

The U.S. State Department, with its headquarters in Washington, DC, recently announced visa restrictions on Chinese officials believed to be involved in human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Tibet. (Photo: Shutterstock / photosince)

Stepping up pressure on China

In a fresh bid to get China to amend its human rights policies and practices, the United States has announced it will impose visa restrictions on officials of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) alleged to be involved in human rights abuses.

On July 12, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the visa restrictions are over the “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, the erosion of fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong, persistent human rights abuses in Tibet, and transnational repression around the world.” He did not, however, provide details or outline names.

It called on the PRC anew to accept the recommendations made during its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of its human rights record, including unconditionally releasing PRC nationals it had arbitrarily and unjustly detained.

The visa restrictions are the latest in a string of U.S. sanctions and policies targeting Chinese officials involved in human rights abuses. They also follow the continued erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong amid its new, homegrown National Security Law, which has been used to crack down on dissent.

The latest reports about Xinjiang show an unrelenting violation of rights by China, such as those of Uyghurs and Hong Kong dissidents. These internal issues also extend beyond borders as China continues to silence critics of its Hong Kong/Xinjiang/Tibet policies abroad.

Human rights-related sanctions by the U.S. against China

Year	Policy	Rationale
2019	Visa restrictions	Slapped against PRC officials who are believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, the detention or abuse of Uighurs, Kazakhs, or other members of Muslim-minority groups in Xinjiang, China’s restive northwest region.
2020	Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act	Requires the U.S. Congress to be informed of human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous region and allows the president to impose sanctions on alleged abusers
2020	Individual sanctions	Imposed sanctions on then Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and 10 other city officials for “undermining Hong Kong autonomy”
2021	Joint sanctions	Together with the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Canada, U.S. sanctions top Chinese officials over rights abuses against the largely Muslim Uyghur people in Xinjiang
2022	Visa restrictions	Slapped against PRC officials responsible for repressive policies targeting “religious and spiritual practitioners, members of ethnic minority groups, dissidents, human rights defenders, journalists, labor organizers, civil society organizers, and peaceful protests in China and beyond.”
2024	Visa restrictions	Imposed against PRC officials over alleged human rights abuses committed in Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Tibet

Beijing has previously taken countermeasures to retaliate against U.S. sanctions, like passing its own Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law in 2021. The act allows it to impose visa restrictions against a foreign country that would impose “discriminatory” measures against Chinese citizens or organizations.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

With online harassment on the rise in Singapore, more and more Singaporeans are turning to the courts to seek protection orders three years after the establishment of the Protection from Harassment court. (Photo: Shutterstock / Vitalii Vodolazskyi)

Giving succor to online victims

Awareness of their rights and where they can seek legal protection from online harassment and related offenses may have emboldened more victims in Singapore to pursue legal recourse, according to lawyers interviewed by The Straits Times.

Now lawyers in the city-state are urging concerned individuals to come forward if they have been victimized by web-based attacks such as doxxing, deep fakes, and sexual harassment.

On July 8 The Straits Times reported that Singapore’s new Protection from Harassment court has seen a slight increase in protection order applications. The court was established in June 2021 to strengthen the enforcement of a similarly named law, which was passed in 2014. It guarantees the issuance of protection orders to prohibit perpetrators from harassing victims.

In 2023, the report said, the court saw 526 applications – up from 520 in 2022 – for protection orders covering cases of doxxing, cyberbullying, and sexual harassment. The POHA punishes offenders with fines ranging from SGD 5,000 (US$3933) to SGD 10,000 (US$7866) or even imprisonment of up to 12 months.

While lawyers like Sophia Ng from law firm Eugene Thuraisingam, and Joyce Khoo from law firm Quahe Woo and Palmer say this reflects greater awareness and utilization of legal protections against harassment, still many harassment cases go unreported.

Fong Wei Li, managing director of Forward Legal, fears that new threats like deep fakes and artificial intelligence could only increase the potential for online harassment.

At least three in five people in Singapore have experienced or knew someone who experienced online harms in their lives, but only half reported it, according to a 2023 study by independent nonprofit organization SG Her Empowerment (SHE).

Two in five victims have suffered the impacts of online harassments such as physical and mental health issues and suicidal ideations.

Apart from the Protection from Harassment Act, Singapore also passed two other similar legislation: the Online Safety (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act (2022), which requires social media sites to block access to harmful content; and the Online Criminal Harms Act (2023), which authorizes the government to order the takedown of websites, apps, and online accounts suspected to be used for criminal activities.

Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said there are still risks not yet covered by these laws given the ever-changing nature of the internet. He cited cases where intimate photos are taken without consent but “the perpetrator is unknown,” he said. “The victim can make a police report, but investigations will take time … there are legal uncertainties, and going to court will involve time and money.”

SOUTH ASIA

Ethnic Nepalis in Bhutan or Lhotshampas, like this man and his children in the Beldangi refugee camps in Nepal’s Jhampa district in 2007, are persecuted against by the Bhutanese government. (Photo: Wikicommons / Alemaugil)

Gross national (un)happiness for Bhutan’s political prisoners

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the Bhutanese government to immediately release all remaining political prisoners, who are enduring deplorable conditions and unfair trials while in detention.

This urgent plea on July 10 comes after the release of Ram Bahadur Rai, a 66-year-old who spent 30 years in prison simply for distributing political pamphlets for a banned organization. In an interview with HRW, Rai disclosed how he had endured torture so severe he was hospitalized, only to be returned to jail and further tortured.

Rai was imprisoned in 1994 over charges of “participating in political violence.”

His story, said HRW deputy Asia director Meenakshi Ganguly, exposes a harsh reality that directly contradicts Bhutan’s carefully cultivated image of “gross national happiness.” He urged foreign governments and multilateral organizations to keep pushing for the release of political prisoners in Nepal, and for King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck to grant them clemency and end their unjust suffering.

“Sixteen years since Bhutan’s transition to democracy, all of the remaining political prisoners should finally be released,” Ganguly said.

Rai is among the 36 other political prisoners first documented by HRW in 2023 who were detained between 1990 and 2008, a period of political unrest in the country. Many of them are Nepali-speaking Bhutanese, called the Lhotshampa, who migrated into Bhutan in the 1800s but were subsequently targeted – alongside other minorities – by Bhutan’s “one nation, one people” policy adopted in 1989.

The government has perpetuated the narrative that political prisoners are criminals, said University of Sydney associate professor Susan Banki. Authorities label them “rajbandi” (state or royal prisoners, anti-nationals), who are forced to serve life sentences without parole.

Moreover, despite the election of a liberal leadership in January 2023, “there hasn’t been much progress on the release of the political prisoners, [and the] government of Bhutan has not had a public position on this issue or acknowledged its political prisoners,” echoed Deekshya Illangasinghe, executive director of South Asians for Human Rights.

Last January, the Global Campaign for the Release of Political Prisoners in Bhutan (GCRPPB) appealed to Tshering Tobgay, then returning as Prime Minister, to grant amnesty to political prisoners. The last time GCRPPB made a similar appeal was in 1999, leading to the grant of amnesty to 40 political prisoners by Jigme Singye Wangchuck, Bhutan’s king from 1972 to 2006.

GLOBAL / REGIONAL

Journalists in Asia, like this female reporter in this undated photo, are often among the targets of policies that restrict freedom of speech and expression. (Photo: Shutterstock / Vietnam Stock Images)

Strengthening freedom of expression worldwide

As global leaders gather in New York for the U.N. High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) to assess progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, international free-speech group ARTICLE 19 has called for stronger protections for freedom of expression and access to information amid worrying global trends of regression around these rights.

In a July 9 statement, the group sounded the alarm on the recent findings of the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), which found that only 17 percent of the SDG targets were on track, and SDG 16 – which includes freedom of expression and information – recording “marginal” to “stagnating” progress.

State commitment to ensuring the safety of journalists, public access to information, reducing corruption, enhancing public participation, and protecting human rights, falls under SDG 16.

Slow progress in achieving SDG 16 is partly reflected in the high number (at least 320) of killings of human rights defenders, journalists, and trade unionists, and the doubling of the global number of enforced disappearances.

These findings, ARTICLE 19 said, mirrored the findings of their Global Expression Report 2024 released last May. It found that more than half of the world’s population were living through a “freedom of expression crisis” as their governments stifle political dissension and access to information.

As such, the group “urged states to address these challenges in the review of SDG 16” at the HLPF and the upcoming 2024 Summit for the Future this September. “This is essential to getting the world back on track to achieving the SDGs by 2030, otherwise, the HLPF will be another missed opportunity,” they said.

The U.N. as well as groups like Advocates for International Development and the Community of Democracies recognize the importance of SDG 16 as a “cornerstone for achieving all SDGs.” But the U.N. also recognized that governments across the world “are indeed failing many people, the world is becoming more dangerous, people are increasingly divided, and justice is being denied for too many.”

In Asia-Pacific, “severe constraints on civic and political space persisted, alongside threats and attacks on journalists and human rights defenders,” according to the U.N. Development Programme. In 2023, South African-based organization CIVICUS rated Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, Laos, Myanmar, North Korea, and Vietnam as having “closed” civil societies.