March 3-9, 2025

NORTHEAST ASIA

Seeking progress on landmark report 

Over two years after a landmark U.N. report alleging crimes against humanity against the Uyghurs in China, rights advocates are demanding action from the U.N. Office on the Prevention of Genocide and the Responsibility to Protect (OSAPG).

During the U.N. Human Rights Council’s panel discussion on early warning and prevention systems for genocide and related atrocities on March 5, Swiss-based rights group International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) questioned the alleged inaction by the U.N. body on the 2022 decision by the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), and asked what its plan of action was.

The CERD decision, based on an OHCHR 2022 report finding possible crimes against humanity against Uyghurs, refers the Xinjiang situation to the OSAPG under its Early Warning and Urgent Action procedure. The said procedure involves taking immediate steps to prevent or halt ongoing atrocities through diplomatic interventions, sanctions, or calling in the U.N Security Council of which China is a veto power.

“We strongly agree that acting promptly on early warning signs can prevent atrocity crimes, and that impunity for such crimes contributes to their further occurrence,” the group said. “The absence of follow-up on this substantive precedent and clear early warning sign risks damaging the U.N.’s atrocity prevention architecture.”

FAST FACTS

• The U.N’s 2022 Xinjiang report raised credible allegations of Uyghurs being subjected to torture, sexual and gender-based abuse, enforced disappearances and forced labor as part of the Chinese Communist Party’s Sinification policy to assimilate them into Han Chinese culture.
• The same report said the “extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim minorities … may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.” 
• China has denied these abuses which continued to be documented both by U.N. bodies, most recently in the 2025 International Labour Organization Report on the Application of International Labour Standards, as well as rights groups like Human Rights Watch.
• The continued inaction of the U.N. has put Uyghurs in peril. Most recently, Thailand deported 40 Uyghurs to China, defying appeals to not send them back where they could face harm.

ACTIONS SOUGHT 

ISHR is calling on the OSAPG to:

• Reference the Uyghur situation in its upcoming annual report, with concrete recommendations to China and the international community.
• Actively gather information, monitor, and publicly report on ongoing human rights violations in Xinjiang.
• Brief States and U.N. agencies in relevant forums, providing recommendations to combat impunity and hold perpetrators accountable.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

Doing right by historically neglected Hmong

They make up the third largest minority in Laos. Yet the Hmong remain invisible as the government continues to deny them Indigenous status and subject them to military violence, forced disappearances, and targeted intimidation. 

Repeated recommendations from the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC) appear to have fallen on deaf ears as there is still a lack of meaningful protections for the Hmong people.

The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) has called on the Lao government to take immediate action to end the persecution of Hmong communities. It also appealed to the international community to send observers to Xaisomboun province, where the Hmong live, to investigate allegations of abuse.

“The forceful isolation of the Hmong population, the constant state of terror that the Hmong population in Lao live under, and the high risk of reprisals against those who share information, remain a persistent challenge,” the group said during the Feb. 19 Universal Periodic Review pre-session on Lao PDR in Geneva, which was made public only last week.

FAST FACTS

• The Hmong people in Laos have faced marginalization due to their historical association with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)’s as its “secret army” during the Vietnam War, and were perceived as enemies of the state even after the 1975 Communist takeover. 
• Discrimination and limited access to resources, education, and healthcare have contributed to their disadvantaged status. Many of the Hmong also live in remote, mountainous areas, where they bear the brunt of the government’s land-grabbing practices for so-called development projects. Poverty and starvation are daily realities.
• Enforced disappearances and even killings also haunt the Hmong, as was the case of the 2020 disappearance of two children, a young woman, and their 80-year-old grandfather. It was later revealed that their uncle was also killed, following a viral photograph of Lao soldiers posing with his corpse. 
• UNPO also alleges that the Lao government has maintained strict military control over Xaisomboun province, where most Hmong live, preventing international observers from assessing the situation. 

ACTIONS SOUGHT

UNPO calls on the Lao government to:

• Recognize the indigenous status of the Hmong and implement legal protections for indigenous peoples.
• Halt land grabs and forced relocations of Hmong communities.
• Grant international observers access to Xaisomboun Province to investigate ongoing human rights violations.

SOUTH ASIA

Early push for long-lasting reforms

Against the backdrop of the new Sri Lankan government’s commitment to improve the human rights situation in the country, and pursue related reforms, the Sri Lanka Core Group, led by the United Kingdom and comprising other U.N. member states, urged President Anuran Dissayanake’s administration to make stronger commitments toward reconciliation, human rights protection, and institutional reforms.

In its report submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) during its 58th session on March 3, the Group acknowledged the new administration’s avowed “commitment to making meaningful progress on reconciliation and the initial steps taken.” 

President Dissayanake assumed office last September, after winning the elections in which he campaigned on a platform of fighting corruption and restoring human rights in the country. 

FAST FACTS

• The UNHRC’s appeals come months after Sri Lankans elected the left-leaning Anura Kumara Dissayanake, whom observers say was a clear break from the country’s old guard political parties. 
• Dissayanake’s campaign pledge of economic relief remains a promise at best. A 2024 report by the World Bank says around a quarter of the island-state’s citizens will remain in poverty until 2026. 
• Impunity continues to hound the country despite initial progress – including the return of military-occupied land in the North to the ethnic minority Tamil. Reports of police brutality and extrajudicial killings are not uncommon while plans to repeal the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act have not assuaged fears that the law will only be rebranded, not abolished.  
• A complaint filed Feb. 26 with the Human Rights Commission by a Tamil youth in Jaffna, alleging he was tortured in custody by Sri Lankan police, as well as the 19 unsolved cases of journalist killings, are among many examples of the unrelenting impunity in the country.

ACTIONS SOUGHT

The Sri Lanka Core Group and Sheriff urge the Sri Lankan government to:

• Take concrete actions to ensure accountability for past human rights violations and ensure that any reconciliation efforts are done alongside affected communities.
• Implement security sector reforms to prevent surveillance, intimidation, and extrajudicial violence.
• Fully align new counterterrorism legislation with international human rights obligations.

GLOBAL / REGIONAL

Closing the gender gap

Thirty years ago, 189 nations signed the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a global commitment to gender equality that offered a hopeful vision. Today, however, that vision remains largely unrealized. 

A recent U.N. Women report, coinciding with International Women’s Month, reveals that gender discrimination persists across all economies and societies, with a concerning regression in women’s rights observed in a quarter of countries last year alone. 

The report urges governments to revitalize their commitments and ensure the full realization of women and girls’ rights, while also presenting a new Beijing+30 Action Agenda to help the world complete its unfinished business.

“Globally, women’s human rights are under attack. Instead of mainstreaming equal rights, we’re seeing the mainstreaming of misogyny,” said António Guterres, U.N. Secretary-General.

FAST FACTS

• The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted in 1995, outlined 12 critical areas for action to achieve gender equality globally. More specifically, it called upon governments and organizations to implement concrete measures to empower women and girls in all aspects of life.
• Between 1995 and 2024 there have been 1,531 legal reforms around the world seeking to advance this cause. To date, however, women only have 64% of the legal rights of men. 

Fast figures

• A separate study by the World Economic Forum found that at current rates, it would take 134 years to fully close the gender gap – a full century later than the 2030 target under the Beijing Declaration. 
• U.N. Women deputy head of research and data Laura Turquet said the regression of women rights “also goes hand in hand with the decline in the strength of democracies in general,” as well as the increasing mainstreaming of the so-called “manosphere,” or an online ecosystem where fringe ideas about the patriarchy and masculinity has made misogyny more rampant. 

ACTIONS SOUGHT

The report made the following recommendations:

• Governments must enact and enforce laws protecting women and girls, including measures to eliminate gender-based violence.
• Investments in social protection, healthcare, education, and childcare services must be increased to ensure economic security for women.
• National plans on women, peace, and security must be fully financed, ensuring frontline women’s organizations receive sustained support.