January 6-12, 2025

NORTHEAST ASIA

Freeing long-detained Christian missionaries

In irreligious North Korea, where faith must center on Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, Christian missionaries often find themselves singled out, with dozens believed to have been imprisoned over the years simply for proselytizing in the isolationist country. 

One such missionary is Choi Chun-gil, who in 2015 was sentenced to hard labor for life on charges of conspiracy to subvert the state, espionage, sabotage, and illegal border crossing. Ten years since, he has had no contact with his family. 

On the 10th anniversary of his conviction, Seoul renewed its call for his release as well as that of the other five South Koreans, two of whom were also missionaries, believed to be held by Pyongyang.

“North Korea’s practice of unjustly and arbitrarily detaining missionaries is a blatant attempt to oppress freedom of religion or belief and silence the voice of the international community calling for human rights for the North Korean people,” it said in a statement.

FAST FACTS

• North Korea considers religious activities political crimes. Hence its persecution of Christians is but part of the unrelenting and systematic human rights violations in one of the world’s most isolated countries. Freedom House, which measures political and civil liberties in each country, gave North Korea a 0/4 score in religious freedom in 2024.  
• North Korea strictly enforces a singular ideology – Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism – which reinforces the personality cult around the founding family. Organized religion is seen as an existential threat to this ideology, as well as a tool for American imperialism. 
• According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Protestant Christians continue to be especially vulnerable to persecution as Pyongyang regards Christians as “counterrevolutionaries” and “traitors.”
• A Christian NGO, Open Doors USA, estimates that North Korea currently detains 50,000 to 70,000 Christians for their faith. The faith-based organization  characterizes Christian life as a “constant cauldron of pressure; capture or death is only a mistake away.” 
• According to South Korea, at least six of its citizens, including three missionaries like Choi, have been arrested or were disappeared by the totalitarian regime. The South Koreans’ case has been especially peculiar as North Korea has previously released American and foreign missionaries after a maximum of two or three years in prison. 

ACTIONS SOUGHT

• South Korea has called for the immediate release of its citizens, especially Choi who has now spent 10 years in prison.
• Pastor Peter Jung, who specializes in North Korean evangelization, urged renewed peace talks between the two countries. 
• Ethan Hee-seok Shin, a legal analyst at the Transitional Justice Working Group, meanwhile called for more attention to detainees so North Korea could be incentivized to treat them better and view them as “bargaining chips” for dialogue and peace talks.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Mounting pressure to lay off lawyers

Yet another high-profile lawyer in Vietnam has been targeted by authorities simply for criticizing the government. 

On Jan. 10, a Vietnamese court sentenced lawyer Tran Dinh Trien to three years for “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon state interests.” The charges stem from three Facebook posts critical of the country’s judiciary. Just before he went to trial this week, he was ordered disbarred as well. 

Human Rights Watch Asia director Elaine Pearson condemned the conviction and urged foreign governments to pressure Vietnam to free Trien, who served as head of the Vi Dan (“For the People”) Law Firm. 

“It is appalling that lawyer Tran Dinh Trien has been sentenced to three years in prison for peacefully expressing their views online – something that shouldn’t even be a crime,” she told AFP.

Local rights group The 88 Project warned that his prosecution would set a “dangerous precedent” for other lawyers and on the general public, “who would be less likely to voice criticism of their unelected leaders and government officials on social media.”

FAST FACTS

• Trien, a former deputy chair of the Hanoi Bar Association who previously represented high-profile activists and dissidents, was arrested in June 2024 for his Facebook posts criticizing then Chief Justice Nguyen Hoa Binh for preventing defendants’ family members from attending trials, and journalists and lawyers from recording video during open trials.
• Article 331 of the Penal Code – the section Trien was charged under – has been flagged as an “all-powerful legal tool to criminalize civil rights,” according to The Vietnamese Magazine. In 2024 alone, it was used to convict and sentence at least 24 people, according to HRW. 
• In convicting Trien, the court ruled that people “must not take advantage” of freedom of speech to damage state interests. He is also the 13th lawyer to be targeted by Vietnamese authorities, according to The 88 Project. Of the 13, two including Trien have been convicted; while the rest are at risk of further persecution. 
• Despite nominally allowing free speech, Vietnam severely restricts press freedom in practice. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranks the country 174th out of 180 on its press freedom index, labeling it one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists.
• Trien’s arrest also follows a pattern of the Vietnamese government targeting lawyers who publicly criticize the authorities. At least four Vietnamese lawyers have sought asylum in the United States in 2023 and 2024, fearing arrest for their online activities, according to HRW..

ACTION SOUGHT

• HRW’s Pearson called on the international community to pressure the Vietnamese government to free Trien.

SOUTH ASIA

Halt deportations, respect refugee rights

For Afghan refugees in Pakistan, a once-hospitable land has now become a place of fear and uncertainty, with authorities conducting sweeping raids, detaining hundreds, and forcing many to flee back to a country grappling with economic collapse and a repressive regime.

As Pakistani authorities impose yet another arbitrary rule seen to make life harder for these refugees and asylum seekers, Amnesty International has again appealed to Islamabad to halt its arbitrary detention and harassment and to abide by its obligations of non refoulement under international law.

“The Pakistani authorities’ actions are sweeping and discretionary in nature and have resulted in the harassment and detention of refugees even when in possession of valid documents and visas. All refugees and asylum seekers, regardless of documentation status, have the right to due process and protection against forced return in international human rights law,” it said in a statement.

FAST FACTS

• Pakistan enforced a new rule saying that no Afghan nationals would be allowed to stay in Islamabad without a document called the “no objection certificate.” The policy, announced by Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, said this was part of their efforts to “regulate foreign nationals” in the capital.
• The newly minted law is an offshoot of Pakistan’s ongoing deportation plan of undocumented Afghan refugees since October 2023 amid a dramatic increase in armed attacks and suicide bombings in Pakistan. Islamabad has blamed them on Afghan nationals and extremists, which the Taliban government in Afghanistan has vehemently rejected. 
• The order affected 1.73 million undocumented Afghan nationals, most of whom fled the Taliban government and the worsening humanitarian crisis in their homeland. 
• Pakistan has deported over 780,000 Afghans – but its sweeping deportations have also affected even those with refugee status. 
• Naqvi’s announcement of a new document for refugees follows the deadly November protests in Islamabad, where city police have been racially profiling ethnic Pashtuns (ethnic Afghans). 
• Pakistan is not a signatory to the 1951 U.N. convention that protects the rights of the refugees. The country also lacks domestic laws to protect the refugees as well as procedures to determine the status of individuals seeking international protection within its borders.

ACTIONS SOUGHT

Amnesty International has called on the Pakistani government to:

• Immediately release all detained Afghan refugees; and
• Revoke the policy requiring Afghan refugees in Islamabad to obtain a No-Objection Certificate (NOC).

GLOBAL / REGIONAL

Freedom for children from forced labor

Despite economic growth over the past two decades, Asia and the Pacific remain home to the highest number of child laborers worldwide, with over 122 million children aged 5-14 forced to work. Millions are deprived of education, trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty and exploitation.

This is according to a new report by the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), which called on governments and NGOs to increase access to education, enforce stricter labor laws, and support vulnerable families. 

With the 2025 deadline for achieving Sustainable Development Goal 8.7 – eradicating child labor – rapidly approaching, ESCAP urges immediate action to eliminate this critical barrier to development. 

“Without the presence of effective policies to tackle child labour, the vicious cycle would continue across generations: due to a lack of education, these young children have poor employment prospects. As a result, they cannot lift their family out of the poverty trap,” it said. 

FAST FACTS

• UNICEF estimates that by 2020, roughly 160 million children – or nearly one in 10 children – were subjected to child labor. Of these, nearly half were in hazardous work that endangers their health and development. 
• The ESCAP report focuses on child labor in five Asia-Pacific countries – Bangladesh, Fiji, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, and Vietnam – highlighting the prevalence, socio-economic drivers, and disparities in child labor. It aims to support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, specifically SDG Target 8.7.1, which seeks to eradicate child labor.
• Asia-Pacific remains a hotspot for child labor. Poverty, lack of education, and socio-economic inequalities perpetuate this issue, necessitating targeted, data-driven policies to protect vulnerable children and break cycles of exploitation.

Fast facts

• Child labor is considered to have severe human rights implications, not the least of which is how it deprives children of the opportunity to attend school, hindering their intellectual and social development. Child labor also exposes children to physical and psychological harm as many involve hazardous jobs. 
• Child labor in its worst forms can be linked to human trafficking, where children are exploited for profit through forced labor, sexual exploitation, or other forms of abuse.

ACTIONS SOUGHT

ESCAP calls on governments to:

• Make more focused efforts on groups with high child labor prevalence;
• Address gender disparity and provide educational support specifically for out-of-school girls; 
• Improve existing laws and regulations related to child labor; and 
• Improve social protection systems especially for vulnerable families.