September 23-29, 2024

NORTHEAST ASIA

Hopes for revival of Japan’s human rights post

A year after former Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida abruptly axed his human rights adviser for still-unknown reasons, human rights advocates are hoping that Tokyo’s new leader would reinstate the post. 

In a recent report by South China Morning Post, Human Rights Watch Japan program officer Teppei Kasai said having a human rights adviser “so high up in the government” had its practical benefits and that it showed the international community that Japan cared about human rights. 

Tokyo Institute of Technology associate professor on gender studies Renge Jibu said having a human rights adviser over the long term was critical to ensuring the effectiveness of the post.   Their calls came before the election of Shigeru Ishiba as the new head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), succeeding Kishida, who resigned last August following a series of political scandals that hit LDP members.

FAST FACTS

• Kishida’s pre-election pledge to prioritize human rights and establish a new advisory role within his government was welcomed by human rights advocates in Japan. Kishida became LDP president in October 2021.
• Under Kishida’s term, Japan became a more vocal champion of human rights: it sought a seat at the U.N. Human Rights Council and publicly stood against China’s abusive policies in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong. But it was also during his watch that Japan’s civic space was deemed “narrowed” by watchdog CIVICUS Monitor throughout his entire term (2021-2023).
• A month after his election, Kishida appointed former defense minister Gen Nakatani human rights adviser. At the time, Nakatani was the head of the Nonpartisan Parliamentary Association for Reconsidering Human Rights Diplomacy, a group formed to enact a Japanese version of the U.S. Magnitsky Act.
• During his tenure, Nakatani led Japan in championing human rights abroad, particularly in Ukraine, Cambodia, China, and Myanmar. But for unknown reasons, the former prime minister dissolved his post during a Cabinet reshuffle in September 2023.
• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan had declared that Japan was committed to actively contributing to the protection and promotion of human rights throughout the world in collaboration with the international community.  
• Human Rights Watch said there was much that Japan could do to realize its aspirations to “actively shape an Asia” where rule of law is maintained. Among others, it can work more closely with other countries to condemn ongoing violations in China; and suspend all non-humanitarian aid to conflict-ridden Myanmar, said HRW Asia director Elaine Pearson.

ACTIONS SOUGHT

• Both Kasai and Jibu called on the Japanese government to correct its mistake and reinstate the human rights advisory post. 

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Saving a Vietnamese activist from extradition

Yet another human rights activist seeking refuge in Thailand is facing the threat of extradition to his home country, raising concerns about the host country’s commitment to the principle of non-refoulement, or not forcing refugees at risk of being persecuted to return to their home country. 

On Sept. 25, FORUM-Asia – composed of 87 rights groups across 23 countries – sought the intervention of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) in the extradition case of Y Quynh Bdap, a Vietnamese human rights defender and Montagnard rights activist. 

They urged the regional rights body to appeal to the Bangkok Criminal Court to immediately and unconditionally release him. The court was set to rule on his case on Sept. 30.  

FORUM-Asia fears that a court decision in favor of Vietnam will put Y Quynh Bdap at risk of torture and other forms of cruel and inhuman treatment when he is extradited.

FAST FACTS

• Y Quynh Bdap, the co-founder of Montagnards Stand for Justice, sought asylum in Thailand in 2018 and was granted refugee status in the same year by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. He fled Vietnam after local authorities accused him of terrorism over his involvement in advocating for the rights of the Montagnard people, an Indigenous group in the Central Highlands accused of religious “evil ways” and politically “autonomous thoughts,” according to a Human Rights Watch report in 2015.
• In January 2024, Y Quynh was convicted along with 100 others in absentia for his alleged involvement in a fatal 2023 attack on police stations by the People’s Court of Dak Lak province in central Vietnam. U.N. rights experts called the mass prosecution politically motivated and said it did not adhere to international fair trial standards. 
• He was then arrested on June 11 by Thai authorities for “overstaying his visa” and was later subjected to an extradition trial in August. 
• Rights groups have long accused Thailand of complicity in transnational repression, as it regularly obliges extradition requests from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos targeting activists and human right defenders seeking refuge within their borders. In 2021, Thai authorities deported four Cambodian refugee dissidents Mich Heang, Lahn Thavry, Veourn Veasna, and Voeung Samnang, who were promptly arrested upon their return.
• Thailand is also suspected of facilitating the disappearance of foreign activists, in addition to extraditing them. In 2019, Vietnamese journalist Truong Duy Nhat vanished from a Bangkok mall after seeking refugee status. He was later found in Vietnam, where he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

ACTIONS SOUGHT

• FORUM-Asia’s Bacalso urged Thai authorities to adhere to its international obligations on non-refoulement.
• She also urged AICHR, ASEAN’s regional human rights body, to fulfill its mandate of upholding human rights by urging the Bangkok Criminal Court to drop its charges against Y Quynh Bdap.

SOUTH ASIA

Halting a destructive hydropower project

For centuries, the Indigenous peoples in Lungba Samba lived in harmony with the Chhujung Khola river. But their once idyllic coexistence is now threatened by a proposed hydropower project that could displace the Indigenous people, destroy the environment, and disrupt their way of life.

The Sangrila Urja Pvt Ltd’s Chhujung Khola Hydropower project has been accused of disregarding community rights, endangering biodiversity, and conducting a fraudulent environmental impact assessment (EIA). As a result, 35 regional and local rights groups have demanded that the Nepalese government halt the project.

“Such environmental harms posed by these profit-hungry development projects are largely irreversible. Without intervention, Indigenous communities in Nepal fear for their survival,” the groups said in an open letter published on Sept. 26.

FAST FACTS

• The Chhujung Khola Hydropower Project is located in Lungba Samba, a critical biocultural site in Nepal that is home to endangered species and the ancestral land of the Indigenous Lhomi Singsa and Bhote peoples. 
• The alleged manipulation of the EIA process by Sangrila Urja Pvt Ltd is accused of includes fabricating information about the real scope of the project area – 1,800 hectares as opposed to 20 hectares of land proposed for the project, as shown in the EIA, and doing away with proper consultations with the affected communities. 
• Sangrila Urja was previously accused of violations against communities and the environment. Early this year, community activists and conservationists launched a public petition against Sangrila Urja and two other local companies, White Flower Energy Pvt Ltd. and Summit Energy Solution Pvt Ltd., over their respective hydropower projects along major rivers in the Lungba Samba Valley. 
• Critics said the projects violate the Lungba Samba Biocultural Heritage Special Conservation Zone Act and Procedure, which was enacted in 2020 to prevent destructive hydropower, road building, and mining practices. 
• Nepal currently has 124 hydropower plants, with an additional 235 such facilities under construction. India and China are the top two investors in such projects. 
• Hydropower development in Nepal has been hobbled by controversy, including the toll it takes on Indigenous communities, consultations with whom are conveniently set aside, said critics. The cases of Tanahu Hydropower Project in western Nepal and at least seven hydropower projects along Likhu River in the east are just two other examples of this dire scenario.
• Last Jan. 4, Nepal approved a controversial policy that basically allows hydropower developments to build entirely on protected areas, as environmentalists and Indigenous communities expressed fears it could trigger a torrent of new hydropower projects on conservation areas.

ACTIONS SOUGHT

• The signatories against the Chhujung Khola Hydropower project  groups have demanded an immediate halt to this undertaking owing to the questionable EIA. 
• They also reminded the government to prioritize people’s free, prior, and informed consent before approving energy projects, and to respect and uphold the rights of indigenous peoples.

GLOBAL / REGIONAL

Protecting the right to information

For International Day for Universal Access to Information, journalists and right to information (RTI) advocates highlighted the increasing threats to freedom of information worldwide as governments and security forces are restricting access to public information, obstructing journalistic work, and silencing critical voices.

To mark the occasion on Sept. 28, the groups led by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) called on governments worldwide to make public information public and to stop interfering in the work of journalists. “Journalism is a public good, but it must operate under conditions that enable its free exercise without fear of being threatened, persecuted or attacked,” it said in a statement. 

While the right to information refers to the broader right encompassing the ability to seek and access facts and data concerning the exercise of public authority, the right to access information online refers to the right to access online content and digital platforms without undue restrictions such as internet censorship and the digital divide.

FAST FACTS

• The right to freedom of information and safety of journalists is enshrined in the U.N. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No. 16, considered a cornerstone to achieving the other SDGs. 
• A recent Global Expression Report by ARTICLE 19 shows that more than half of the world’s population are still living through a “freedom of expression crisis” as their governments stifle political dissension and access to information. Meanwhile, UNESCO says that nearly a third of the world’s countries still do not have laws on freedom of information, seen as an important tool “for promoting rule of law, other rights, and building trust.”
• In Asia, there are at least 11 countries with existing laws or ordinances¹ governing right to information, but implementation varies widely. Most of these countries, with the exception of Taiwan, have dismal records² when it comes to press freedom and protecting journalists.

Asian countries with freedom of information laws or ordinances

Sources: Bangladesh Gazette, RTI India, Freedom Info, Petaling Jaya, NIC, Human Rights Initiatives, Presidential Management Staff, Office of the U.S. Historian, Ministry of Mass Media, Ministry of Justice, Thailand Official Information Act

• Even with the enactment of RTI laws, governments still impose many restrictions on access to information. In Pakistan, for example, the government regularly imposes internet shutdowns or outright bans on social media platforms, according to Digital Rights Foundation (DRF).
• In Myanmar, the junta has forced the closure of media outlets and ordered the arrests of several journalists. This is on top of internet restrictions and shutdowns especially in rebel-held areas, according to a report by Mizzima Weekly.  

ACTIONS SOUGHT

• The IFJ has asked the world’s governments to make public information accessible to the public and to stop interfering with the work of journalists. 
• The DRF has recommended more transparency measures in government and a renewed effort to expand internet coverage and digital literacy, especially in underserved areas.
• In Malaysia, where the RTI ordinance applies only to Selangor and Penang, the Centre for Independent Journalism renewed its push for a federal RTW law “without further delay.”

¹In some of these countries, RTI is guaranteed by law passed by their parliaments or Congress; in others like Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the Philippines, freedom of information is enshrined as an ordinance or an executive order.

²The foregoing countries, with the exception of Taiwan, are classified as having problematic, difficult or very serious problems in press freedom, according to Reporters Without Borders’ annual Press Freedom Index.