Governments in Asia escalated rights abuses and further slid toward authoritarianism in 2023, according to
a recent report by the global human rights watchdog Human Rights Watch, highlighting the region’s continued democratic backslide amid worsening inequalities.
The report, which was
released on Jan. 11, described a worsening state of repression in several Asian countries and raised concerns on the “transactional diplomacy” that it said underscored democratic governments’ refusal to
hold neighboring countries like China and Vietnam to account for their repression of ethnic minorities and suppression of free speech, respectively.
The report
noted in particular the intensified crackdown against the rights of the LGBTQ+ community in Afghanistan and the risks of forced deportation constantly hounding Myanmar asylum seekers in Thailand. It also denounced
other Asian governments for their human rights abuses: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, North Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos.
Human Rights Watch Asia Director Elaine Pearson denounced how established democracies in the region, like India, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea, have failed to “
provide leadership” in calling out rights abuses in the region.
Rights monitoring group Civicus last year
noted that more Asian countries had joined the ranks of governments suppressing civil liberties. Sri Lanka, for example, was
added to the list of Asian countries with a repressed status, increasing the total to eight from the previous year's seven.
The most prevalent rights violations observed in the Asia Pacific region concern the use of force to threaten or intimidate activists and journalists, as well as the use of censorship to double down on dissenters, according to Civicus.
While millions in the region also remain trapped in poverty, the erosion of democratic spaces has posed challenges to addressing income inequalities in the region, a
report by the United Nations Development Programme in November 2023 noted.
Alarmed by the trend of authoritarianism in the region, Southeast Asian parliamentarians
joined calls for the United Nations to create a new rapporteur position that would review the state of democracy worldwide, including in Southeast Asia.
A U.N. Special Rapporteur on Democracy will help “keep these issues at the forefront and signal to naysayers that democratic principles and practices offer the best conditions for peace and prosperity,”
said Ann Hudock, president and CEO of Counterpart International, a U.S.-based nonprofit.