September 9-15, 2024

NORTHEAST ASIA

Ending rampant adoption fraud

For decades, South Korea faced international criticism for being the “world’s largest baby exporter,” as private adoption agencies facilitated a widespread, systematic adoption scheme that saw hundreds of thousands of children overseas post-war. 

Last week, its Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) said it had found more women who were pressured or coerced into giving up their infants for adoption, often under circumstances that involved deception and manipulation. These revelations have sparked renewed demands for justice and accountability, with the commission leading the calls for an official apology and reparations for the victims. 

“It’s inconceivable how violent and systemic it was, but there’s also redemption in the truth coming out,” said Peter Moller, himself an adoptee and founder of the Danish Korean Rights Group that campaigned for an inquiry into South Korea’s adoption industry.

FAST FACTS

• The Korean War’s devastation led to the rise of foreign aid-driven orphanages and transnational adoption in Korea. More than 200,000 South Korean children have been adopted overseas post-war, and with more than half of all adoptions taking place in 1970s and 1980s under the dictatorships of Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan, according to rights groups. 
• During that period, adoption agencies “aggressively solicited newborns or young children” from hospitals, orphanages, and maternity homes in exchange for money, according to an April 2024 report by the Danish Appeals Board (DAP). Lack of oversight and the government’s “open-door foreign policy that exported adoptable babies as a form of diplomacy with Western countries” allowed this industry to thrive.
• The TRC, originally mandated (2020) to review human rights abuses linked to the country’s past military governments, began investigating the adoption industry in 2022. 
• The TRC report examined state-run care facilities for vagrants in Daegu and Sejong cities, which had sent off 20 children to adoption agencies in Western countries. 
• The TRC found that the children were forcibly taken to these agencies, “sometimes on the day of birth or the next day,” and their parents coerced to give up their parental rights.
• An earlier report, the Associated Press’ 2019 investigation, uncovered evidence of kidnapping, abuse of children, and shipping of children overseas for adoption, by Brothers Home, South Korea’s largest vagrant facility.

ACTIONS SOUGHT

• The TRC urged the South Korean government to issue a formal apology, especially for the coercive methods authorities allegedly used to force mothers living in welfare shelters to give up their infants; and provide financial compensation to the victims.
• Susanne Seong-eun Bergsten, a South Korean adoptee who grew up in Sweden, similarly appealed to the government to “continue taking accountability and offer reparations to adoptees and their families,” CNN reported.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Another clarion call to end draconian laws

It seems not even administration lawmakers are exempt from Malaysia’s clampdown on dissent, after one of its parliamentarians was summoned for questioning by the police simply for airing concerns about a new halal policy in the Muslim-majority country. 

The case of Teresa Kok, who represents the Seputeh constituency in the Federal Territories, prompted ARTICLE 19 and the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) to call on authorities to stop its harassment and to respect even lawmakers’ right to free speech. 

“These investigations set a dangerous precedent for silencing legitimate criticism and shutting down important policy discussions,” said ARTICLE 19 senior Malaysia program officer Nalini Elumalai. “Lawmakers must be free to raise concerns, especially when the policy or law has a direct impact on livelihood.”

FAST FACTS

• Kok was summoned for questioning last Sept. 10 after police said they received “50 reports” complaining about her suggestion to review a proposed mandatory halal certification for all restaurants. The six-time parliamentarian said the proposal was overly onerous and costly especially for small businesses.
• Police claimed Kok had “caused public alarm” and that she had used online platforms to share “offensive content,” which are violations of Sections 298 and Section 505(b) of the Penal Code, and Section 233 of the Communication and Multimedia Act. If found liable, she could face up to five years in jail and fines of 50,000 ringgit (US$11,704). 
• Rights groups have long lobbied for the abolition of these laws as well as a colonial-era sedition law, saying these have been used to “investigate, arrest, charge, and convict individuals who have criticized government officials, institutions, or Malaysian royalty or shared opinions about sensitive issues such as race or religion,” as ARTICLE 19 itself said in 2023.
• Kok is part of the longtime opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP), which may explain why she has not escaped the government’s crackdown related to the so-called 3R: race, religion, and royalty, dubbed “taboo subjects” in the Muslim-majority country, as any critical comments about the government, Islam, and the monarchy are considered criminal offenses.
• Last August, former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was charged with sedition for comments about the previous king’s appointment of Anwar Ibrahim to high office instead of him after the 2022 polls.

ACTIONS SOUGHT

• ARTICLE 19 and CIJ have called on authorities to stop their unwarranted investigation against Kok.
• ARTICLE 19 also renewed its call for a repeal of the aforementioned laws, saying these did not meet international standards.
• Kok’s party, DAP, appealed for fairness as they backed Kok, saying she was only doing her duties as MP.

SOUTH ASIA

Rescinding repressive law against peaceful assembly

As Pakistan is wracked by several protests, its government passed in record time a new law that rights groups warned would severely restrict the right to peaceful assembly in the South Asian country.

In separate statements last week, Amnesty International and the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) called on the government to immediately repeal the Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Act of 2024.

The law grants authorities broad powers to restrict or ban public gatherings in the capital city of Islamabad under vague criteria.

This legislation, said FORUM-Asia executive director Mary Aileen Bacalso, “deepens the risk of entrenching repression and the weaponization of laws to silence dissenting voices.”

FAST FACTS

• Within four days the law was passed by the Senate and the National Assembly despite objections from opposition parties, and given presidential assent “in haste” by the end of the same week. 
• The newly minted law empowers the district magistrate of Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, to grant an application for public assemblies – defined as a gathering of more than 15 people – and to designate which area is a “red zone” or “high security zone.”
• Offenders could face imprisonment of up to three years and a yet unspecified fine. 
• Amnesty International argues that the law, while applicable only in the capital, “also sets a dangerous precedent that could be replicated by provincial governments across the country.” 
• FORUM-Asia questions the timing of the law, which was passed as the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf staged a massive rally last Sept. 8 to call for the release of its leader and former prime minister Imran Khan, who has been in jail since August 2023 over charges of inciting violence. PTI officials themselves believe the law was actually intended to suppress growing public support for their party.
• Apart from this, Pakistan has been wracked by nationwide protests from Balochistan to Bannu amid growing discontent about the country’s flailing economy and human rights abuses. . 

ACTIONS SOUGHT

• Bacalso of FORUM-ASIA urged the government to repeal the new law and to “work towards creating a conducive environment that allows for legitimate political dissent.”
• Amnesty International asserted the public right to peacefully assemble within sight and sound of government buildings and politically symbolic locations.”   

GLOBAL / REGIONAL

Save the children

While children are the least responsible for climate change, they are paying the highest costs, as the worsening impacts of rising global temperatures render many parts of the world uninhabitable. 

With millions of children forcibly displaced by extreme weather events, a global children’s network is urging the world’s governments to improve data collection and child-related programs, especially for children on the move. This means making sure that, wherever they might go, their rights to health care, food, education, and other basic services are intact. 

“Children have the right to a healthy environment and to grow up on a liveable planet,” according to the new report by the International Data Alliance for Children on the Move (IDAC). “Every child deserves a safe place to call home, no matter where their individual paths may take them.”

FAST FACTS

• Recent studies have only made increasingly clear the risks that children face under a worsening climate crisis. For example, a 2023 UNICEF report says that for every year that the world fails to curb runaway global warming, the impact on children compounds: higher risk of displacement, lack of access to basic social services, and higher vulnerability to disease and death. 
• The same report said that at least 1 billion children live in “high-risk” countries that include Myanmar, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, and North Korea.
• The IDAC report mirrors many of those concerns involving children. Between 2016 and 2023, it said, 62.1 million children were internally displaced due to weather-related disasters – and the number is expected to go higher in the coming years as climate change worsens.
• Children in the most high-risk regions are the most unlikely to move mainly because they do not have the resources to do so. Women and girls are also more likely to stay behind when disasters hit, which could expose them to serious harm.

Number of internally displaced children, 2024

Source: IDAC

ACTIONS SOUGHT

• The report urged a more inclusive climate policy, especially for children and youth by ensuring their active engagement in climate talks.
• The report also appealed for improved data collection and analysis by governments in relation to climate-related migration and displacements, especially of children.
• Lastly, the report called for child-responsive and climate mobility-sensitive financing for displaced children.