Human rights in Asia
[4][5] In the 21st century, the nation faces a war on drugs under the 16th President Rodrigo Duterte, who has threatened to declare martial law, similar to Ferdinand Marcos.
Numerous members of the Indonesian security forces have been found responsible for human rights violations including rape, beatings, unlawful detention, etc.
Local interest in the adoption and upholding of human rights has also been relatively minimal, with proposed international governmental organizations (IGOs) such as the Central Asian Union (CAU) choosing to focus on other issues such as security, economic development, and cultural permeation.
For example, Human Rights Watch has compiled numerous reports with aims of drawing attention to the fact that Afghanistan remains in a state of conflict, seeing citizen death tolls either stay high or slowly grow; general safety of citizens is an uncertainty in Afghanistan, with human rights violations including torture, unlawful detainment, etc.
Human Rights Watch condemned the Kazakhstan government for the detainment and jailing of peaceful protesters in 2016, with other violations such as restriction of movement and torture also being suspected following detention.
South Asia includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka – each state having varying degrees of effective human rights policies and/or goals.
[15] The World Health Organization (WHO) have stated an estimated 40 million people have been poisoned in Bangladesh alone and that local governments have taken few (if any) steps to rectify the problem.
The arsenic is thought to come from water filtering through arsenic-rich rocks and local mining activity; the latter of the reasons is difficult to show, however, due to the refusal of Bangladesh to sanction any kind of investigation into the matter.
Bhutan has officially committed itself to the "enjoyment of all human rights" and has shown progress in recent history via a skyrocketing gross national happiness (GNH) rating.
The GNH replaces the standard measurement, gross domestic product (GDP), and its adoption has been considered by many developed nations including Canada and Japan.
[20] Pakistan is potentially the most volatile country in Southern Asia, seeing citizen-targeting terror attacks stemming from racially or politically motivated conflicts bring about high civilian casualties.
[28] General living conditions have improved in recent years, with China successfully lifting millions of people out of poverty and allowing them to meet their basic needs.
[33] One of Japan's most notable human rights violations over the last decades was the provision of comfort women for their military services, namely before and during the Second World War.
[34] Mongolia has suffered from a poor record of human rights throughout history, seeing numerous cases of torture and assault on the part of both the government and individuals.
North Korea has been accused of a number of human rights violations including extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape and other forms of sexual violence, and forced abortion.
Women in North Korea continue to face a wide range of abuses including non-criminalized marital rape, forced marriage, and sexual torture; these acts are undertaken by both the government and other family members (typically husbands, fathers, etc.).
[37] North Korean prison facilities have also historically provided some of the worst living conditions in the world, likely being the cause of hundreds of thousands of deaths of recent decades.
While a number of countries within today's greater Asian region were not members of the United Nations at the time it passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, most of those who were chose to vote in favor of it (i.e. Afghanistan, Pakistan, India).
ASEAN operates solely in South East Asia, with member states including Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar, Brunei, and Laos.
HRW was established in 1978 and monitors countries around the globe, publishing more than 100 annual reports and generating extensive media coverage of human rights infractions.
For example, HRW actively organizes and covers protests or activist movements against a wide variety of issues (i.e. garbage burning in Lebanon).
[46] In addition to the previously-mentioned regional governmental institutions and non-governmental organizations that contribute to East Asian human rights regulation and oversight, the European Union (EU) has played an active role in recent years.
[47] The EU has been monitoring East Asian human rights development for several years now, as demonstrated by the issuance of several public statements condemning countries for committing violations.
[48] Despite the novelty of its active engagement with East Asian human rights oversight, the EU's most substantial efforts can be recognized with regard to the ongoing anti-Uighur violence that is occurring in the Xinjiang province of China.
In February 2020, the EU issued a statement arguing that China's Chen Mingguo is responsible for “arbitrary detentions and degrading treatment inflicted upon Uighurs and people from other Muslim ethnic minorities, as well as systematic violations of their freedom of religion or belief”.
[49] In addition to these accusations, the EU orchestrated a variety of travel bans and asset freezes within Xinjiang's operational borders, thus demonstrating the effectuation of tangible, policy-based sanctions in the face of East Asian human rights violations.
Uzbek citizens took to the streets in support of this prison break, occupying Babar Square to protest governmental corruption, unjust judiciary systems, etc.
[52] Despite the government claiming it took action solely against supposed terror groups embedded within the protest, Uzbekistan came under heavy international criticism following the Andijan massacre.
[53] The urban population simply did not have the required skill set to achieve the goals of the Khmer Rouge and many were executed as economic saboteurs (labelled as such due to their production rates).
While the CCP did not officially condone them, it did not take any measures to stop the executions until numerous complaints from those who survived the Daoxian Massacre reached the top level of government.
