October 14-20, 2024

NORTHEAST ASIA

Defending Tibet’s rights defenders

Under China’s “Sinicization” campaign, Tibet has seen a rise in development projects that often disregard environmental concerns, especially near sacred sites. Those who question these projects, including human rights defenders like Dorjee Daktal and Kelsang Choklang, face severe consequences.

Their plight was among those highlighted by U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders Mary Lawlor during the U.N. General Assembly meeting in Geneva last on Oct. 17. She called on member-states to review and amend laws to protect human rights defenders and civil society, and to ensure due diligence, and to secure consent before initiating infrastructure projects. 

“While some States clearly value the contribution that human rights defenders make in helping them meet the Sustainable Development Goals, the Special Rapporteur finds it incomprehensible that so many others prevent them from doing this work,” she said in her report. “[I] urge States to regard those exercising their right to defend rights and promote the Sustainable Development Goals as crucial allies.”

FAST FACTS

• Lawlor’s report summarized how human rights defenders across the world help in achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. However, “this work is being made more difficult by increasing restrictions on the right to defend rights,” she said.  
• In Tibet human rights defenders face severe consequences for opposing mining and infrastructure projects that threaten the region’s environment and cultural heritage. Lawlor cited the cases of Daktal and Choklang, who have been in jail since 2014 for protesting against mining operations at the site of a local sacred mountain in Biru County. There is currently no information on their whereabouts or their health.
• More recently, over 1,000 Tibetans were arrested for peacefully protesting the Kamtok hydropower project: a 1.1-gigawatt dam that threatens to flood six monasteries and two villages. A group of U.N. special rapporteurs, including Lawlor, has expressed concerns about the project’s potential for forced displacement, cultural destruction, and significant environmental impact.
• China has systematically displaced Tibetans through other projects, often without fair compensation, such as the construction of the Kela mega hydro-solar plant in 2023 and the seizure of Tibetan lands for mining operations.
• China is also linked with human rights abuses, including forced labor, human trafficking, and lack of compensation, committed in the implementation of projects under its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure program.

ACTIONS SOUGHT

Lawlor recommends the following:  

• Ensure laws protect human rights defenders and civil society from restrictions;
• Obtain free, prior, and informed consent before resource exploitation or infrastructure projects; and
• Prevent the criminalization of peaceful human rights work and investigate all attacks on rights defenders.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Address long-overdue abuses, impunity

In recent weeks, the Philippines’ House of Representatives’ quad committee¹ has heard explosive testimonies from former high-ranking police officers, exposing widespread corruption and impunity during former President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. Among the revelations was a rewards system that incentivized extrajudicial killings under the previous administration.

Human Rights Watch has called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to implement major law enforcement reforms, launch investigations and prosecutions, and rejoin the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is already probing the drug campaign that claimed thousands of lives.

“The Interior and Justice ministries need to follow-up on the congressional revelations and credibly investigate these ghastly crimes,” said Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Concerned foreign governments and donors should press the Philippine government to respond promptly to ensure that state institutions are not misused to perpetrate such horrifying abuses ever again.”

FAST FACTS

• Since August, the quad committee has been investigating the former administration’s war on drugs, which is believed to have killed at least 20,000. While the supercommittee admits it was eight years too late given the gravity of abuses committed throughout Duterte’s six-year tenure (2016-2022), such a probe only became possible under a more open-minded administration.² 
• Various witnesses testified to the House about extrajudicial killings and abuses committed by senior officials close to then-President Duterte. Last Oct. 5, former police chief Royina Garma revealed the existence of a rewards system incentivizing the killing of drug suspects. 
• Kerwin Espinosa, a self-confessed drug lord, alleged that Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa – Duterte’s former national police chief – threatened him to implicate then opposition senator Senator Leila de Lima in the drug trade, leading to her arrest and nearly seven years of detention. Espinosa is also the son of slain mayor Rolando Espinosa, who was killed in November 2016 in what police claimed to be a “shootout” but was later revealed to be a rubout.
• The “drug war” has resulted in at least 20,000 dead but with almost no prosecutions of suspects, prompting the ICC to continue its investigation in July 2023. The call to rejoin ICC has been echoed by other rights groups and advocates.

ACTIONS SOUGHT 

HRW has put forward the following recommendations: 

• For the Philippine National Police to a) rescind the two PNP circulars that prop up the drug war including “Oplan Double Barrel,”³ the operational framework of the drug war, and b) grant the PNP’s Internal Affairs Service more power and authority to investigate and address serious abuses by police officers. 
• For the Department of Justice to initiate investigations and appropriate prosecutions based on congressional testimonies.   
• For Marcos to allow Philippine officials to cooperate with the ICC’s investigation.

¹The quad committee was formed last August and consists of four separate House committees: human rights, public order, public accounts, and dangerous drugs. The leadership decided to merge their separate inquiries into the drug war, drug smuggling, and Chinese-led online scams, believing them to be interconnected and tied to key people in the Duterte administration. 

²Observers also say the probe was politically driven by the fallout between Marcos Jr. and his vice president, Sara Duterte, who has openly disavowed him, claiming she was only used by the Marcoses to stage a comeback after their patriarch, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., was ousted in the 1986 Edsa Revolution. 

³It aimed to eradicate illegal drugs through a two-pronged approach: Project Tokhang, which involved police officers visiting households to persuade drug users and pushers to surrender, and Project HVT which targeted high-value targets, or major drug personalities, for arrest or neutralization.

SOUTH ASIA

Making good on a promise to restore democracy

As Bangladesh’s interim government navigates the transition to democracy, a global journalist group asserts that restoring press freedom – which was suppressed under former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina – must be a key priority.

On Oct. 15, Reporters Without Borders called on Bangladesh’s interim leader and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus to withdraw false charges against journalists and repeal the controversial Cybersecurity Act used to prosecute reporters. 

Over 130 journalists are currently entangled in legal cases that RSF described as “unfounded.” This is on top of the 250 journalists who were injured during the student-led protests against Hasina’s government.

FAST FACTS

• RSF’s call comes as Yunus seeks to reform Bangladesh’s institutions and restore democracy after the fall of Hasina’s government, which was marked by a severe decline in press freedom. In RSF’s 2024 World Press Freedom Index, Bangladesh dropped to its lowest-ever ranking: 165th out of 180 countries. 
• Journalists in Bangladesh faced severe repression under Hasina, whose government used laws like the previous Digital Security Act (now replaced by the Cybersecurity Act of 2023) to arrest and prosecute reporters, leading to widespread censorship. Journalists were frequently harassed, intimidated, and subjected to violence, with pro-government forces targeting those critical of the administration. 
• From 2018 to 2023, 97 journalists were arrested and 255 prosecuted under the Digital Security Act, according to the Centre for Governance Studies. Seven journalists still face prosecution, with one sentenced in absentia.
• During the August 2024 student protests that eventually ousted Hasina, five journalists were killed, and more than 250 were injured in a violent crackdown. These events accelerated Hasina’s departure from office and underscored the harsh environment faced by journalists during her rule, RSF noted.

ACTIONS SOUGHT 

RSF urged Yunus to: 

• Prosecute those responsible for the killing of five journalists during the student-led protests as well as the perpetrators behind the violence that injured more than 250 journalists;
• Provide compensation to both the injured journalists and the families of those who were killed; and
• The dismissal of prosecutions against reporters.

GLOBAL / REGIONAL

Preventing a possibly draconian policy

What was supposed to be a landmark global convention to finally address cybercrime is being eyed with suspicion by rights groups, who fear it could be used to further restrict internet freedoms and violate the rights of its citizens. 

ARTICLE 19’s analysis of the U.N. Draft Convention on Cybercrime, set for adoption later this year, flags broad wording that could criminalize legitimate activities, intrusive surveillance, and hindered security research. The international rights group urged U.N. member states to avoid signing or ratifying the convention, believing its negative impact on human rights and online freedoms outweighs its benefits in addressing cybercrime.

“At the outset, ARTICLE 19 warns that the Draft Convention does little to actually prevent or deter transnational cybercrime or increase cyber security. Instead, it aims to reconfigure sovereign controls over a global and open internet and enable governments to use these controls to violate the rights of their citizens,” it said.

FAST FACTS

• The draft convention was first proposed by Russia in 2017 supposedly to help the world  combat ICT crimes, which “constitute a transnational phenomenon that affects society and the economy of all countries, making international cooperation to prevent and combat such crimes essential.”
• The UNGA then voted to develop it through Resolution 65/230 which created an ad hoc committee to facilitate the negotiations. After three years, the committee last Aug. 8 finalized the draft convention and will soon submit the text to the UNGA for adoption. 
• Even at the onset of the process, advocates have already expressed concerns that a legally binding U.N. treaty was not the reasonable course of action considering how cybercrime laws across the world are used to prop up digital authoritarianism, target dissenters and journalists, and justify surveillance powers. 
• ARTICLE 19 specifically expressed concern on the lack of clarity on the definition or threshold of the offenses that could constitute a cybercrime, as well as provisions that enable intrusive surveillance by the state; do away with transparency and accountability in public governance. 
• Other advocates such as the International Press Institute, Access Now, and Human Rights Watch have also urged states to reject the convention as it failed to adequately reflect their concerns. 
• Apart from the grave human rights implications of the draft convention, other advocates said the convention could also seriously imperil global cybersecurity and national security.

ACTIONS SOUGHT

• ARTICLE 19 urges member-states to not sign and ratify the convention or use it as a template for crafting domestic cybercrime legislation.