Reflecting on the human rights situation in Asia has become a dismal exercise. While it is difficult to give exact numbers—since many cases go unreported—based on our meetings and interviews with human rights workers on the ground, enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings seem to be on the rise. In addition, modern day slavery, inhumane treatment of refugees and the return of authoritarian and repressive regimes are common across the region. In that context, being allowed to say what you please and having the right to come together with others might not seem to be crucial priorities. But without freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association, activists will never win the struggle for human rights.
This year the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)—a network of 58 human rights organisations in 19 countries in Asia—is celebrating its 25th anniversary. In preparation for the anniversary publication and campaign, we consulted and interviewed approximately 120 human rights defenders from across Asia and beyond. Many very serious human rights concerns came to the fore, but the challenge most often mentioned was the shrinking space for civil society, and in particular the need for the freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association to counter it.
Threats and abuse of power, as well as the adoption of laws and regulations that limit these specific freedoms for organisations and individuals critical of those in power, have become common practice. Contributors highlighted that while the trend is worse in authoritarian regimes, several countries that claim to be democracies are also increasingly cracking down on civil society. Among the principal tools that governments use to silence civil society are the criminalisation of dissent and bolstering national security discourses.
