October 28-November 3, 2024

NORTHEAST ASIA

Shining a light on North Korea’s forgotten ‘disappeared’

Investigations of enforced disappearances in North Korea used to focus mostly on foreigners, including South Koreans and Japanese nationals, who were forcibly taken into the isolationist country since the end of the Korean War. 

A new report published by the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) sheds light on how three generations of North Korean leaders have perpetrated the widespread and systematic use of enforced disappearances of North Korean escapees and their family members—and how China and Russia played key roles in these crimes by repatriating escapees and refugees back to their home country. 

“These arrests are carried out by state agencies of different countries or North Korean agents dispatched to those countries. Hence, we highlight the critical need to define enforced disappearance as a transnational crime and respond accordingly,” said Jeonghyun Kang, TWIG project director.

FAST FACTS

• Tens of thousands of North Koreans have defected to other countries since the Korean War ended in 1953, with most crossing through China or Russia before finding a third country like Thailand. 
• Those caught or repatriated often face imprisonment in labor camps or other detention facilities, where they are subjected to torture and other inhumane treatment.
• The report, based on interviews with 62 North Korean escapees conducted from January 2021 to May 2024, identified 113 North Koreans who disappeared after being apprehended by secret police while attempting to defect or simply contacting relatives in South Korea.

By the numbers

• The report was released shortly before the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review on North Korea’s rights record on Nov. 4 to 15. The U.N. is expected to press the totalitarian regime to surface victims of enforced disappearances, repeal of its “three evil laws” that suppress residents’ thoughts and education; and the deployment of North Korean troops in Russia to aid the invasion of Ukraine. 

ACTIONS SOUGHT

The TWJG calls on the international community:

• To hold North Korea’s state leaders, notably Kim Jong Un, accountable for enforced disappearances when imposing targeted sanctions.  
• To “define enforced disappearance as a transnational crime and respond accordingly.” This, in light, among others, of China’s and Russia’s complicity in the crime based on their respective repatriation policies for North Korean defectors.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Protecting religious pluralism

Since gaining its independence in 1945, Indonesia has been struggling to ensure religious pluralism despite the growing Islamist influence in the country. In fact, generations of administrations, including that of outgoing President Joko Widodo, have enforced the state’s further Islamization, marginalizing religious minorities. 

Now, over a year since Indonesia’s largest Islamic organization endorsed the U.N. Charter and rejected calls for an Islamic state, Human Rights Watch has urged Indonesia to dismantle its discriminatory regulations and take steps toward accountability for violence and abuse against Indonesians of other faiths.

“They should also redefine what Indonesia considers to be ‘religion,’ using U.N. standards rather than the narrow definition adopted in 1952,” said HRW Jakarta researcher Andreas Harsono. 

FAST FACTS

• Though it is a Muslim-majority nation, Indonesia is neither an Islamist nor a secular country. But post-independence, various presidents have accommodated Islamist agendas by enforcing blasphemy laws and regional Sharia-inspired laws that marginalized religious minorities and women, Harsono said. 
• Blasphemy laws, in particular, were strengthened under the dictator Suharto and have seen hundreds of people detained and tried under the law since 1968. 
• This continued even under Widodo, who had campaigned on a platform of pluralism but who then later solidified intolerant policies. Among these are expanded blasphemy laws and regulations that enforce Sharia on a local level, like mandatory hijab laws affecting non-Muslim girls.
• Over the years, rising religious intolerance has hobbled the country as seen in 2021 in West Kalimantan, where a mosque belonging to the Muslim minority Ahmadiyah sect was attacked.
• In a historic move in February 2023, the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country’s largest Islamic organization and which has been at the forefront of calls to reform Islamic jurisprudence to counter extremism., rejected an Islamic caliphate and suggested recognizing the U.N. Charter as a source of Islamic law.

ACTIONS SOUGHT

• HRW’s Harsono urged the Indonesian government and the NU to take concrete steps to end long-standing discrimination and violence against religious minorities.
• He also challenged the government to repeal discriminatory regulations and establish accountability for violence and abuses faced by religious minorities.

SOUTH ASIA

Unsilencing Afghanistan’s silenced voices

More than three years since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, human rights defenders (HRDs) continue to face severe restrictions on their work and threats to their lives, forcing many of them into hiding or to flee the country. 

As Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis worsens, FORUM-Asia underscores the urgent need to support HRDs, both in-country and those in exile. The regional coalition recommends donors, NGOs, and human rights groups provide training, protection, funding, and capacity-building to enable these activists to continue their critical work.

“The prospect of long-term holistic support from Afghanistan’s HRDs in exile hinges largely on the commitments of diplomatic channels, INGOs and donor community,” the report said. “[It] will help ensure that the Taliban’s human rights violations remain in the global spotlight and those fighting for justice and accountability are empowered to continue their work, both from exile, and inside Afghanistan.”

FAST FACTS

• Since 2001, Afghan civil society organizations CSOs and HRDs have been a critical part of promoting human rights advocacy and providing basic social services in the country. However, the Taliban’s return to power has severely curtailed civic space, with draconian restrictions on CSOs, dissent, women’s rights, and other freedoms, leading CIVICUS Monitor to classify Afghanistan as “Closed.”
• Such measures have also affected the country’s HRDs, one-third of whom have escaped Afghanistan and suffer precarious living conditions abroad. Those who have stayed behind, meanwhile, face the risk of arrest and physical violence. The families of exiled HRDs who also remain at home similarly face these challenges.
• FORUM-ASIA’s report also spotlights the plight of HRDs in transit countries like Iran and Pakistan, where deportation risks, economic hardship, psychological trauma, and police harassment constantly hound them.

Type and severity of challenges faced by Afghanistan’s HRDs
in transit in Iran and Pakistan

Note: These are based on FORUM-Asia’s interviews with Afghan interviews in transit. The numbers represent the severity of the challenge scored on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest.

• Those who reach Western countries like Canada and the U.S., which are deemed safer, grapple with adaptation challenges, limited funding, and coordination issues, hindering their continued human rights advocacy.
• These factors have collectively contributed to Afghanistan's dire humanitarian crisis, as the loss of HRDs and CSOs has resulted in a brain drain and has negatively impacted the delivery of essential aid to a population that has mostly (90%) been plunged into poverty.

ACTIONS SOUGHT

FORUM-Asia has outlined a series of recommendations for international donors and NGOs, including:

• Offering training, psychosocial support and funding for HRDs so they could continue their work; 
• Providing humanitarian assistance and coordinate visas for HRDs and their families in other countries; and
• Urging diplomatic pressure on the Taliban to comply with the country’s international human rights obligations.

GLOBAL / REGIONAL

Clipping Southeast Asia’s growing internet scam problem

Over the years, Southeast Asia has emerged as a global hotspot for internet scams, with Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos serving as primary hubs for these criminal operations. Despite efforts to dismantle these operations, the increasing scale and sophistication of these scams continues to exact a heavy toll on both the economy and human rights. 

This was according to a new report by the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) published Oct. 30, which called for more international cooperation, deeper financial investigations and public awareness to dismantle these criminal networks and protect vulnerable individuals from exploitation. 

“While sanctions against a few high-level perpetrators are a useful step, much broader transnational accountability is urgently needed,” USIP said.  

FAST FACTS

• In the past years, internet scam networks have become deeply entrenched in Southeast Asia’s lawless regions, most of them operating out of Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos’s so-called “Golden Triangle.” These criminal organizations have raked in an estimated $64 billion annually by defrauding unsuspecting victims across Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the United States, according to a recent USIP report. 
• This is not to say, however, that the region has seen no improvements. The Philippines, for example, has taken its first steps in dismantling the farms after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced a nationwide ban on offshore gambling operations during his third State of the Nation Address last July. 
• While recent crackdowns in other countries have disrupted some operations, the underlying problem persists. In Myanmar, for instance, scam centers have shifted to new locations as authorities target existing hubs.
• Cambodia also continues to be a safe haven for scammers, with government officials often denying claims of criminal activities. Last September, authorities even arrested Mech Dara, one of its few remaining independent journalists, for reporting about this industry. 
• Laos, once a relatively quiet player, has seen a recent uptick in enforcement but remains vulnerable to infiltration by organized crime. 
• The involvement of state and military actors in these operations has been deeply alarming. Myanmar and Cambodia are notable examples.
• The human cost of these scams is staggering. Thousands of individuals, often lured from impoverished regions, are subjected to forced labor and abuse whenever they don’t reach their target quotas, according to the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime.

ACTIONS SOUGHT

USIP recommends:

• Increased prosecutions of both local and international perpetrators;
• Greater media attention to raise public awareness of scam dangers;
• More funding to combat trafficking and human rights abuses; and 
• Expanded U.S. engagement with ASEAN on these issues.