On 18 July, the International Criminal Court (ICC) rejected the Philippines’ appeal to halt an international investigation into alleged crimes committed between 2011 and 2019 under a mantle of legitimacy. According to a civil society leader, moments after the ICC ruling an old woman – still grieving her grandson’s killing in 2019 – breathed her last, awaiting justice that may yet be far in the future.

“This is a kind of victory but still needs more work to be done,” said Deaconess Rubylin G. Litao, coordinator of the United Methodist Church-led organisation Rise Up for Life and for Rights. She spoke after attending the Manila funeral of the woman, a fellow organiser, but declined to give her name in hopes of protecting the surviving family.

“Some families have been waiting for this for almost a decade, while others didn’t survive long enough,” Litao said. “There are still nameless victims who were killed by this war. There are more families who are still silent and are trying to bury the truth.”

Officially, about 6,000 people were reported killed in the war on drugs between 2016 and 2019. Litao and her alliance believe thousands more victims have not been recorded – the ICC prosecutor has claimed as many as 30,000 people were killed in that same period.

The Philippines formally withdrew from the ICC in 2019, about a year after the organisation announced intent to look into killings related to the drugs crackdown. Two years later, in 2021, the ICC prosecutor requested authorisation from the pre-trial chamber to initiate an investigation. 

But after years of debate over the alleged ineffectiveness and partiality of a domestic inquiry into the war on drugs, the ICC upheld last month its ability to carry on its international probe, rejecting the Philippines’ appeal to keep things behind closed doors. The latest court ruling means its investigation will continue, though President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has already declared his intention to stay out of it. 

In recent comments to the Filipino press, he pointed to “very serious questions about their jurisdiction and about what we consider to be interference and attacks on the sovereignty of the Republic.” 

“We are essentially disengaging from any contact, from any communication with the ICC,” Marcos Jr. said.

Shortly after he became president in 2016, Duterte launched a brutal crackdown on drug-related crimes. He authorised police to arrest or kill those involved with illegal drugs under two operations, or “plans”, packaged under a campaign known as “Double Barrel”. 

These operations included “Tokhang”, which targeted suspected low-level users or dealers at their homes, and “High-Value Target”, which aimed at bigger industry players.

This campaign is central to the ICC’s inquiry, but the scope of its proposed investigation would run even deeper than that, ranging from November 2011, when the Philippines became a member of the court, and March 2019, when it pulled out.

As part of that, the court accepted the request to extend its inquiry beyond Duterte’s war on drugs to include the so-called “Davao Death Squad”.

When Duterte was mayor of Davao City, between 2011 and 2016 and prior to his election as president, 385 extrajudicial killings were allegedly carried out by local authorities. Duterte implemented a hard-core approach to drug-related crimes and during his presidential campaign openly committed to investing in a bloody “war on drugs”.

Soon after the ICC authorised the investigation, the Philippines filed a request for a deferral, claiming the court lacked jurisdiction over crimes committed in the country after it withdrew from the court. In January of this year, the pre-trial chamber granted the prosecutor’s request to resume investigations, confirming the court’s jurisdiction over activities when the Philippines was a member. Marcos Jr. filed another appeal, which was rejected by the court’s latest pre-trial chamber decision. 

The ICC prosecutor’s office, which is conducting the investigation, stated it had worked with the Filipino government during the deferral process and “hopes to explore ways to cooperate with all parties concerned”.

Litao’s alliance is one of them. The organisation is committed to continuing its engagement with the community and supporting families to seek justice for their loved ones.

“I believe the international community saw the struggles of the Filipino people, especially the victims’ families,” Litao said. “We are happy and we wish to further cooperate with the International Criminal Court in this investigation.”

The civil society backbone of the country is gathering strength to prepare for the victims’ defence before the ICC, said attorney Theodore O. Te, regional coordinator for the National Capital Region at Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG). 

“We are helping out some of the claimants and supporting our lawyers who have applied for accreditation with ICC to be assistant counsel,” he said. “Realistically, I don’t think the office of the prosecutor can expect official assistance coming from the Philippine government.”

It has been less intense but it’s still there. Killings are still happening.” 

Theodore O. Te, regional coordinator with the Free Legal Assistance Group

The Marcos administration is yet to invalidate any of Duterte’s official documents that served as the legal justification for extrajudicial executions or other human rights breaches, and has been accused of rights workers as continuing the bloodshed in a quieter fashion

FLAG has challenged these Duterte-era declarations with the Supreme Court and is now awaiting its decision. If the court rules these issuances are illegal or unconstitutional, the war on drugs loses its official authority and legitimacy, Te explained. 

Although the priority remains domestic justice, Te believes there is little chance the killings can be addressed at a national level under the current government. The ICC, he said, seems to be the only available judicial means. 

“The Filipinos are not so enamoured with the idea of having to go to the ICC. We don’t have a choice,” he said. “But we are also realistic enough to know that the ICC is not perfect.” 

The Filipino people themselves, Te said, will have to pave the way for accountability to be enforced at a community level. That is only possible through a conscious political process ‌ that turns away from violence and prioritises human rights, he said. 

“The war on drugs unofficially was commenced by Duterte. It has in a sense changed now. It has been less intense but it’s still there. Killings are still happening,” Te said.

The post Overriding appeals, ICC to investigate Philippines drug-war killings appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

Born and raised in the Lao capital Vientiane, 36-year-old Anan is the founder and president of Proud to be Us Laos, the main civil society organisation working on sexual and gender issues in the country.

Anan founded the organisation in 2012 initially as just a small gathering to raise awareness about sexually transmitted infections, particularly HIV/AIDS, with support from the U.S. government. That year, 300 people attended the event.

From this modest showing came the beginning of a new era for gender diversity in Laos.

“It was just a small event, not a Gay Pride or anything like that,” Anan said. “We wanted to show that we are just Lao brothers and sisters who want to contribute to our national development. But because it was organised in Laos for the first time, it attracted the media attention.”

The next Proud to be Us Laos event, in 2013, was aired on national television. According to Anan, that was a turning point in the group’s relationship with the Lao government. The transparency of the LGBT+ community’s activities softened remaining tensions with the high representatives, securing their support.

Laos does not officially recognise marriage of same-sex couples. In 2009, the country legalised changing gender, although it doesn’t officially recognise non-binary genders and has no protections or anti-discrimination laws for gender-diverse people. Still, the persistence of groups such as Proud to be Us Laos have been pioneers in creating a safer environment for the LGBT+ community.

Gradual acceptance over the past decade led to a major achievement this year for the Lao LGBT+ community. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has approved the official celebration of the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia in Laos on 17 May.

The day commemorates the WHO removal of homosexuality from its Classification of Diseases in 1990. For Laos, explained Anan, recognising the day on a national level is a big step in an ongoing journey toward equality.

Anan dedicated most of his life to supporting his peers in the LGBT+ community in Laos, and this year’s official recognition was like a gold medal for his dedication.

While his work on HIV prevention started much earlier, it was only after university in 2012 that he received funds to create a solid network in the gender-diverse community. The U.S. embassy in Vientiane already knew Anan as a University of Wyoming alumna and about his work as a teenager on HIV. With a degree in international relations and social work, Anan was the perfect candidate to receive funding for an LGBT+ programme.

“It was very unusual in this country 11 years ago. LGBT+ was perceived as a Western influence.” Anan said. “We had to explain to the government that LGBT+ is not Western import or naming or shaming anybody, it’s the human reality.”

Once the group had won a smile and a nod from the government, Anan and his team could set up their first event, which in its early days resembled a marketplace of stalls from local organisations promoting awareness of sexual and reproductive health, and HIV/AIDS prevention in the gay community.

Over the past decade, their presence has only grown. Anan sees this year’s official recognition of the International Day as a important step while noting that serious work remains, especially outside Vientiane.

“This is a powerful message, especially in countries tied to cultural beliefs like Laos where being LGBT+ often means being abnormal,” he said, adding that some more traditional provinces still hold close to such views.

“Many ethnic minorities in our country believe in spirits. For them LGBT+ people are demons.”

Although not from an ethnic minority or a province, Anan had a hard time as a teenager coming out to his family and friends. As the only son of four children, his parents counted on him to carry on the family name. Only years later, they realised it was never going to happen.

You have to understand your own social and political context“

Anan Bouapha

As a child, Anan loved to paint his nails and hang out with his mother. He once tried on her dress, and he remembers feeling good in women’s clothes. His parents thought it was “just a phase”, but as the years passed, they started to see he was “different”, Anan remembered.

“They slowly realised it was something I would carry for the rest of my life,” he said.

The hardest period for Anan was in high school when he had to conceal his true identity from family and friends, fearing rejection. He didn’t even tell them about his volunteer work in HIV/AIDS prevention.

“I wanted to tell them I was helping people to save their own lives. I wanted to tell them how honourable that job was. But I was terrified,” said Anan.

It took him three more years after he started his work with HIV/AIDS prevention to find the courage to come out to his parents. In 2008, Anan was invited to represent Lao youth at a high-level conference with the national minister of health. His parents started wondering how their son got invited to such an important important event

“That’s when I told them.”

After a long period of estranged silence, Anan’s parents accepted their son’s identity as a gay man and started attending his Proud to be Us Laos events every year.

Understanding local context

New things can be scary for those who don’t know, Anan believes. Only through creative persistence and constructive cooperation did Proud to be Us Laos move forward through the years while adjusting to its background.

“You have to understand your own social and political context before advocating for a change,” he said. “You can’t just look and copy from your neighbours, they have a different system.”

In Lao, where there was no language for LGBT+, advocates needed to create new phrases in order to communicate their goals within the local context. That includes a political system known for repressive tactics such as silencing critics

“I must admit it’s quite a Western term,” Anan said, referring to the LGBT+ label. “It took us a while to come up with a culturally appropriate term in Lao.”

People of the same sex can now talk about it and even walk holding hands”

Anan Bouapha

The group now doesn’t talk much about LGBT+. Rather, they use “gender diversity and information”.

According to Anan, the word “diversity” is powerful to navigate and to hold effective discussions with government partners.

“We all know what’s the real meaning behind this word, we just don’t say it because that’s how it works in our culture,” Anan said.

The future

But despite adversities, Laos has made tangible progress in LGBT+ rights over the past decade. From an originally strictly traditional approach, the country is now open to small but steady changes that could mean more protection and acceptance of the gender-diverse community.

Although changes are more visible in the capital, Vientiane, the rest of the country is catching up. That is also thanks to the massive impact of social media, according to Anan. While speaking up in person can be intimidating, the protection of a screen and online anonymity has been a turning point for many people in the LGBT+ community.

Though he knows that his country still has a long way to go, Anan often reflects back on how things have changed for the better since he was a teenager.

“It was not something you could talk openly about,” he said. “But now I have seen a shift in freedom to sexual orientation and gender identity in Vientiane. People of the same sex can now talk about it and even walk holding hands.”

The post Laos in rainbows: Organiser charts gradual progress for LGBT+ rights appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

“A society that welcomes the voices of children will certainly be a bit noisier. As if adults weren’t noisy enough,” joked child rights advocate Amihan V. Abueva. “But maybe with some louder noise from the younger ones, we could find more sense and better solutions.” 

From the Philippines, Abueva has been a pioneer in her field for more than three decades. This week marked International Children’s Rights Day on 1 June, which the Southeast Asia Globe commemorated by walking through her pivotal work across the region and world in an extensive interview. 

A key member and former president of the Bangkok-based child protection network ECPAT International, Abueva played a major advocacy role for stopping child prostitution in the global sex tourism of Southeast Asia. 

Beyond that, Abueva has long been a vocal proponent of the right of children to participate in society, especially in policy-making about child welfare. She previously served as the Philippines’ government representative to the ASEAN Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC) and has worked to encourage input from youths and children.

Abueva was born in the Philippines and raised during the authoritarian regime of President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. In those years, she overcame several obstacles to become a rights defender, but the real turning point in her work as a children’s advocate wasn’t until after the end of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986. 

Soon after the restoration of democracy, she gave birth to a child.

“Then it was when I became a breastfeeding advocate and got more serious about children’s rights,” Abueva said. “I have never left.”

That was 1988. The next year, the UN adopted the first children’s rights international treaty, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Abueva, who started her activism in the Marcos years, and her team successfully lobbied the Philippine Senate until it signed and ratified the treaty in 1990.

The UNCRC is now the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history, adopted by 196 nations, including all Southeast Asia countries. 

Although that was a big milestone for the region, Abueva felt it wasn’t enough. 

Through the years, while overseeing research on prostitution and tourism, she felt “it was really important to talk to the children themselves about it”.

In 1996, she embarked on a campaign to involve children in the first World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Stockholm. The event included representation from 122 governments and civil society organisations from around the world.

“I had a real uphill battle,” she said. “I insisted that children should be participating at the same level as adults, and I won.” 

The planning committee accepted her plea and 16 children from the Philippines, Sweden, Brazil and Ghana participated in the congress. 

That was just the beginning. From 2000 to 2008, hundreds of children from more than 20 countries were involved in international meetings. As children’s participation grew quickly, ECPAT worked along with other international organisations to facilitate the process and train adult participants to safely and effectively interact with the youths. 

“Many people work for children, but they don’t know how to work with children,” she said. 

Abueva wants to see even more child participation across all levels of governance, from domestic to international.

“When you help children to grow and develop critical thinking, they can become leaders for themselves,” she said. “It is our responsibility to accompany them. Especially in our society, which is not kind towards those who think critically.”

What does child participation mean in the context of Southeast Asia?
A concept we are seeing emerging now is children as human rights defenders. But, of course, it’s difficult in a region where even adult human rights defenders are at risk. 

By using the term “human rights defenders”, children could find protection in already-existing international legislative standards. But the problem is how the state allows those rights. We have to help children to value peace and solidarity and so to help each other rather than become military-led. 

Recognition of the children’s right to participate in Southeast Asia has been progressing at different levels. Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Philippines, are more involved in child participation across the region, while others, such as Laos and Vietnam, are still trying to catch up. In Myanmar, we also have a big problem now. The military junta really endangers lots of children. We are still working with some groups there, but they have to be really careful. We are still trying to find safe ways for them to participate, for instance, through consultations with the UN. 

Civil society organisations, government agencies and inter-governmental bodies have strengthened collaborative work to create safe spaces for children to express their views on matters affecting their lives. But aside from the various efforts of creating safe spaces for children, child participation is not just children receiving kits or food during an activity, it is not just children watching magic shows, or having activities to commemorate children’s month. 

Meaningful child participation brings in children even at the planning stage, where children can raise what they think is the best way for them to celebrate the children’s month, what programs, projects or activities are appropriate or are needed by them and their peers, and how the activities should be implemented that will ensure child-friendly approaches and tools. Another important aspect of meaningful child participation is getting the children’s feedback on the activities and how they can be further improved in the future. 

Allowing children to speak and make decisions, even as simple as letting them decide the colour of shirt to wear, helps them develop important life skills like problem-solving, critical thinking, and communicating.

What programs and activities are available for children to participate in key decisions at a community or national level?
At the national level, civil society groups are advocating for more meaningful child participation in existing or current mechanisms. 

For example, in the Philippines, the local government units are mandated to create a Local Council for the Protection of Children at the village, city or municipality and province levels. Children representatives are among the members of the council. Consultations with children are being conducted at the village level. The team is also in charge of promoting and ensuring a safe environment for children and overseeing the government’s action on the topic. 

Across the region, efforts to organise children and youth groups are also multiplying because we have to remember that children are not just passive recipients of services, victims, or survivors, but they are also active agents of change.

In issues like climate change, children are already taking action in simple ways that are also relevant in their own community. In the UNCRC monitoring and reporting, children are actively participating in preparing the reports submitted to the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

At the regional level, there is the ASEAN Children’s Forum (ACF), which is conducted every two years. During this regional meeting, children talk about issues that affect their lives and their peers. We also conduct a regional childrens’ meeting annually. We gather children from the communities where our member organisations work. In addition, we conduct consultations with children for our strategic plan. 

In 2019, we organised the Asian Children’s Summit for the first time. It was a way to try to bridge the whole of Asia. So we had children from East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia. The kids discussed four main themes, namely the right to help the environment, digital safety, children and the in the context of migration and violence against children and we asked them to develop what they wanted to say about this. 

That event especially demonstrated that children have so many ideas and that we need everybody to be working together. 

We value children’s voices in our work and we learn a lot from them and because of this, we are able to do our work better.

What are some of the main challenges in this field?
First, the participation rights of children need to be fully understood by all stakeholders. It is not just simply listening to children when they talk. Article 12 of the UNCRC talks about “giving due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of children”. It is active listening for adults and taking action based on the views of children. At the same time, adults have the responsibility to explain to children why some of their views could not be considered.

Meaningful child participation can be consultative, collaborative or child-led. These three approaches are equally important. 

Another problematic thing in Asia is that there is the process behind the [ASEAN Children’s Forum], which is organised by the ministers for social welfare and development and regional working groups. The ones who really get the work done here are senior officials in the end, which is not really the point of a children’s forum, is it? 

We [children’s rights practitioners] don’t know who actually listens to what the children said and what they do with the children’s opinions afterwards. There’s been an attempt to revise the terms of reference, but I’m not sure whether that’s already been changed or not.

Another major issue now is that children are the first ones to lose their voice when civic space shrinks and states impose stronger restrictions. That is what’s happening in Myanmar. But in the Philippines, things are also not going too well for children. 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, two teenage girls broke the curfew rules and two policemen caught them and took them to the beach. They sexually molested one and raped the other. Following the event, one of the girls went to report the case to the police in a neighbouring town but in addition to being denied police protection, on the way home she was ambushed and shot dead. 

Our work is to explain to the kids that when you are abused go to the police and report the violence. But cases like this really break everybody’s trust. If even the authorities don’t respect children, we are in big trouble.

Our role as child rights defenders is to ensure that the children’s voices are heard as loudly as possible.

What are your hopes for the future of children’s rights in Southeast Asia?
One day, a girl from Pakistan and her Indian friend came to me and said: “Grandma Ami, when you talk about our right to a healthy environment, don’t think only in terms of physical health, you have to also talk about mental health.”

And I was really taken aback because it was 2019. At that time, there wasn’t that much being said about the mental health of children. This was pre-pandemic. I really thought they had a point. Mental health was and is a big problem and I realised that thanks to two children speaking up to me.

This is exactly what I hope for the future; that adults value children’s opinions. When we embrace their participation, we need to value them for what they are now and for what they will be in the future. 

Children’s rights are everybody’s business.

The post A life for children’s rights appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

To keep costs low, brands typically outsource production to local factories in low-income countries. However, by removing the brand from daily activity in the factories, this practice can carry high risk for labourers. Violations of workers’ rights, physical and mental abuse, unfair layoffs and limited association freedom are just some of the threats facing garment workers even in regular conditions.

Since the Myanmar military overthrew the country’s elected government in 2021, such practices have only increased in a general atmosphere of impunity.

“The HR manager reported me to the military for participating in peaceful demonstrations for labour rights,” Aung* wrote in a report to the Industrial Workers’ Federation of Myanmar. “They then kidnapped me, torched my house, tortured me and slit my brother’s head wide open.” 

Aung is a former garment worker in a factory producing textiles for multinational retail conglomerates H&M and Marks & Spencer in northwest Yangon. After the violent events she described, Aung said that her factory manager laid her off. 

Within this corner of the highly globalised garment supply chain, major brands have yet to find a way to balance workers’ needs against their bottom lines and other industry pressures.

Two years after the military coup, stories such as Aung’s are increasingly common as the army strives to maintain power amidst inflation and harsh international sanctions. While some groups are encouraging brands to stay in Myanmar with better practices to protect labour, many workers there say they’ve already given up on a system in which factory owners can disregard their rights with seemingly no recourse. Increasingly, they’re even calling for the immediate withdrawal of all international fashion brands from the country to reduce the income of foreign currency in the military’s pockets.

At the start of the year, the Business & Human Resource Centre tracked 198 cases of alleged labour and human rights abuses perpetrated against at least 104,000 garment workers since the military takeover. 

The longer brands stay, the longer the military will survive, said Khaing Zar Aung, treasurer of the Confederation of Trade Unions Myanmar and president of the Industrial Workers’ Federation of Myanmar. 

“The brands are bringing in what the military needs,” she said. “They are equally responsible for all the killings in Myanmar.”

Workers were already mobilising for freedom of association and labour rights before the 2021 coup. Over the two years since, mounting reports of harassment and abuse from employees point to dramatically worsening conditions.

“We could restore democracy in a short time if only international bodies stop giving legitimacy to the military by bringing foreign currency in,” Khaing Zar Aung said.

More violations after the coup

Before the coup, trade unions signed official agreements with the factories enshrining the workers’ rights to association, medical leave, fair wages and social security. But things have changed since then. None of the previous guarantees are now in place in garment factories. 

Since the coup, workers say employers cooperate with the military authorities in hopes of gaining financial benefits while ensuring their own safety. Managers now act as watchdogs for the military in their garment factories.

The Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association reported that garment exports worth $4.7 billion last year. Data provided by the Industrial Workers’ Federation shows that labour salaries amount to a total of just 5.3% of that revenue. 

The current minimum wage in garment factories in Myanmar is $1.68 a day, approximately half what it was before the coup and the high rates of inflation that followed it. Besides not being enough to even feed one person, workers can’t earn this wage unless they complete the amount of work assigned, Khaing Zar Aung told the Globe. This would normally require them to work between 10 and 14 hours a day and skip their weekly day off

“Workers are slaves now,” she said. “If they report the abuse, the military would torture, arrest, or kill them.”

The military also took advantage of pandemic conditions to dismantle labour unions and persecute their members, said Mayisha Begum, labour programme assistant at the London-based Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.

“Workers and unionists have been increasingly targeted,” she said. “The military often works in coalition with employers and burns down the villages of those who advocate for their labour rights.”

While some workers and unionists had no choice but to stay, others fled or hid either abroad or in remote villages amidst ongoing intimidation. Khaing Zar Aung went to Germany shortly before the coup and decided to stay abroad after the military takeover. But regardless of the physical distance, she continued to work closely with her team in Myanmar. They’re now scattered across the country and mostly working anonymously after the authorities raided their office, seizing documents and computers. Officials also arrested staff members and revoked the validity of their passports.  

The organisation remains operative but often can’t prove alleged violations against workers to the brands’ headquarters, as it prioritises the workers’ anonymity and safety. After receiving complaints, brands will typically start a dialogue with the accused factory leaders to investigate the violations. But once a factory denies allegations, brands have little to no power to address the issues on the ground.

“Brands don’t have any leverage,” Khaing Zar Aung said. “They just have to leave.”

Responsible exit

But the international business community, including several major fashion brands, has different plans. 

The majority of international brands included in the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre violation tracker claim their supply chains follow best practices such as in conducting due diligence and applying adequate remedies to violations, according to Natalie Swan, the centre’s labour rights programme manager.

“They are not taking actual responsibility for the violations on the ground,” she said. “Brands should consider a responsible exit from the country.”

As brands don’t have any legal obligation to eliminate human rights abuse from their supply chain, Swan said the burden to perform due diligence is barely felt in countries with weak rights for labour and civil participation.

So-called responsible exits are still a nascent concept. Because of a lack of clear regulations, Myanmar has recently seen an increase in brands adopting a “cut and run” approach, which would leave the workers without a job within a day.

To prevent the expansion of this, the Clean Clothes Campaign, a global alliance of labour unions and non-governmental organisations in the garment industry, released a list of unofficial guidelines earlier this year on what due diligence should look like in Myanmar’s garment sector. The campaign called for brands to be more transparent with stakeholders, workers, civil society and consumers.

“A good exit will be done in partnership with rights holders, not at their expense,” Swan said. “What matters are the workers’ needs, ultimately.”

She argued that best practices would include in-person dialogues between chief representatives of the brands and the workers. 

However, the reality on the ground looks different. Reports of abuse and violations continue to flood the desks of human rights organisations and labour unions. The popular European fashion brand H&M is often in the eye of the storm for allegedly failing to ensure a fair wage to the workers and neglecting their rights. 

In a comment to the Globe, the brand’s media relation team said H&M will “continue to monitor closely the developments in Myanmar. In the current situation, we are very mindful of the fact that many people in the country rely on international companies for their livelihood. As things stand, we are refraining from taking any immediate decision on future order placement and will continue to work with all stakeholders.”

While H&M seems to have no plans to leave Myanmar anytime soon, other western retailers such as Primark, Aldi South Group, and C&A announced their exit from the country late last year. But according to Swan, it is yet to be seen how they are actually proceeding with the withdrawal. This would likely follow different paths, as the relationships between brands and factories differ along such factors as the lengths of their partnership contracts.

Since each factory in Myanmar normally has contracts with six or seven different brands, the exit of one would not necessarily affect the survival of the producer.

“Now it’s a wait-and-see moment to see how brands who announced the exit can extricate from that market sustainably and responsibly,” said Swan. 

Responsible sourcing

Karina Ufert, CEO of the European Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar (EuroCham), and Vicky Bowman, director of the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business, are not entirely convinced such responsible exits are possible. They believe that companies should continue sourcing in Myanmar by conducting stronger due diligence and gaining more leverage by consolidating their relationships with factories. 

“While staying engaged in the country, brands can exercise their leverage to improve working conditions for hundreds of thousands of workers,” Ufert said. “Disengagement of the responsible brands will only lead to a further deterioration in the situation for the workers’ rights and contribute to greater unemployment.”

The Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business has partnered with EuroCham over the past decade to implement programmes to support responsible business practices, such SMART TaG and its successor 2022-2026 Multi-Stakeholder Alliance for Decent Employment (MADE). These programmes are intended to improve working conditions and reduce labour rights abuse, but their progress seems uncertain under the military government.

Last September, police in Yangon arrested Bowman, a former UK ambassador to Myanmar and a long-time resident, along with her husband, who is a Myanmar national. The charges were related to Bowman’s registration as a foreigner in the country, but political observers believed the arrest to be in line with the detention of thousands after the coup as part of the military’s efforts to crack down on dissent.

The couple was released in November as part of a mass pardon and were staying in the UK when Bowman spoke with the Globe.

“Brands have to leave now“

The EuroCham and responsible business programmes have also seen a strong backlash from labour unionists and workers, who say efforts to develop mechanisms to address grivances have backfired.

Focused on training workers and management to create formal procedures to handle complaints, the programmes also encouraged employers to form workplace coordination committees with representatives from all levels of the organisation.

“These are impossible procedures in a country where rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining agreements are banned,” Khaing Zar Aung said. “Workers are tortured or arrested if they get involved in such mechanisms.”

Labour union representatives strongly believe that the quickest and most efficient way to restore democracy and labour rights in Myanmar is for the EU to withdraw any business and financial involvement from the country. Khaing Zar Aung also urged the EU to comply with its own values and principles by effectively implementing sanctions against Myanmar. 

“We prefer to lose our jobs and have short-term suffering rather than continuing being treated like slaves,” Khaing Zar Aung said. “Brands have to leave now.”

The post Western fashion brands in Myanmar called out for worker abuse appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

Hello and welcome back to Anakut Podcast!

We are now on the first episode of the third season! Can you believe we already have two seasons under our belt?

To open up our third season, hosts Thina, Voleak and Andrew sit down to discuss women in politics and the policy space of Cambodia. Along with two special guests, they dig into the ways women do (and don’t!) have a voice in how Cambodia is run. 

While recent elections have seen the percentage of women in government increase to twenty-four percent and the creation of a Ministry of Women’s Affairs, there are still serious issues pertaining to women’s participation in government and the efficacy of laws intended to change Cambodian women’s lives for the better. To help tackle these questions, our hosts invited two women to share their experiences and reflections on women’s issues, the current state of women in politics, and their hopes for the future. We spoke with You Sotheary, the Founder of Next Women Generation, a platform that shares inspiring stories of female leaders, and Oung Chanthol, the founder of Cambodian Women’s Crisis Center and executive director of Women’s Media Centre of Cambodia, an NGO with a specific focus on the rights and role of women in Cambodian society. 

The episode begins with a discussion on how women’s roles in politics have changed, and how women often become involved in politics as a direct response to the issues they face in their lives. We follow the ways women in politics have affected public discourse on issues like domestic violence, an issue that went from having almost no one talking about it to seeing laws put in place to prevent its occurrence. Further on, we dissect the usefulness of these laws and how solely their existence isn’t a panacea. From societal views on women’s issues, to vague legal language and traditional cultural attitudes, we also explore how various factors can constrict the effectiveness of these laws, leaving them either practically useless or simply misused. 

Issues of education, safety, familial and societal expectations, gender roles, and violence against women will not be solved overnight.

Getting even deeper into the conversation, we cover ground from barriers to women’s participation in the political process, to promoting substantive equality and pushing beyond gender roles for greater female participation in politics and policy formation. It’s not a simple thing to break down the barriers to political participation for Cambodian women, issues of education, safety, familial and societal expectations, gender roles, and violence against women will not be solved overnight. But we discuss ways we might be able to take them on in the present. 

Have you ever wondered why more women in Cambodia are not involved in politics? Or maybe you’ve heard the women who are currently involved in politics might not be as progressive on women’s issues as one might hope. Listen on to find out the reason why! 

All episodes of the podcast can be found on our Anakut webpage, Amazon, Apple, Google and Spotify.

The post The Anakut podcast: Women in politics and policy appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

Many of these are among the files of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), also known as the Khmer Rouge tribunal. The chambers are a joint effort between the domestic court system and the UN that was tasked with investigating and prosecuting surviving leaders of the regime for decisions that led to the deaths of upwards of 1.5 million Cambodians from 1975-1979.

The trial portion of this started in 2007 and ended last September. This has ushered in the final act of the ECCC: a three-year “residual phase” tasked with archiving the tribunal’s massive trove of evidence while delivering services to the many regime survivors who participated in the court’s proceedings.

Those now working to preserve documents at the ECCC and elsewhere say the process is essential to maintain the testimony of the survivors as a critical learning tool for younger generations to more fully understand the failures and atrocities of the Khmer Rouge. At the same time, privacy concerns and other questions remain about how much evidence can be made safely available to the public. Given the wide scale of the regime’s atrocities, many survivors are still alive, with some living in close proximity to accused perpetrators. 

“The circumstances in Cambodia are very unique,” said Milan Jovancevic, a programme management officer for UN Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials (UNAKRT). “Many people were victims, there are many perpetrators across the country, so putting the document to the public may actually risk human life.”

For that reason, some documents within the ECCC’s archive of public history will still be red-marked as classified. This has always been up to judges, who review content for sensitivity to see if it can be published without risking danger to victims, Jovancevic explained.

The ECCC already maintains a public database available upon request. This will be updated for completely open access through a new website and database by the end of the year. 

“This is, to my knowledge, the first time that any international tribunal has ever done that,” Jovancevic said. 

“Nothing should be confidential”

At the same time, the ECCC is not the only group creating a comprehensive archive of evidence. Multiple organisations are updating and managing their own Khmer Rouge databases.

“We wanted the whole world to have one archive at home,” said Youk Chhang, executive director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam). “For us, archiving these is the beginning of the healing process.”

On a recent afternoon in a corner of a library lined with packed shelves in DC-Cam’s headquarters, an archivist opened boxes of documents to prepare for their work. The team there preserves court documents in different formats such as microfilm, photocopy and now the latest updated digital scans.  

As an organisation, DC-Cam is already devoted to preserving memories of the Khmer Rouge era. Youk himself is a survivor and a prominent advocate for others affected by the regime. 

He maintains that documents used in the tribunal should be made as publicly available as possible. At the court’s request, DC-Cam had gathered and provided about half-a-million documents to the prosecution.

According to Youk, those documents are sorted into five categories: paper documents; photographs; films; physical evidence such as maps of prisons and massacre sites; and interviews with both former Khmer Rouge officials and survivors.

Youk said many of these documents are considered only circumstantial evidence and need to be combined to decisively show what happened. 

Some in the residual phase have argued that evidence may need to remain classified for the public good or to safeguard the privacy of individuals.

Youk mostly rejects that logic. 

“Khmer Rouge history is a public history,’’ he said. “I recommend keeping it at the National Archives of Cambodia. Nothing should be confidential in Khmer Rouge history.”

Cleaning up after the trials

By the end of its trial portion last year, the ECCC had indicted 10 Khmer Rouge leaders in four mega-cases. However, due to procedural disagreements and the advanced age and poor health of the defendants, the court only convicted three. 

Jovancevic said parts of Cases 001 and 002 have been largely classified. 

Case 001 was the very first before the court and centred on defendant Kaing Guek Eav, also known as “Duch”. As the former chairman of the notorious Khmer Rouge S-21 Security Center in Phnom Penh, Duch’s case ended in a high-profile win for the tribunal in 2010 when the court convicted him of acts of genocide and other crimes against humanity. 

After first handing him a 35-year prison term, which Duch appealed, the court passed down a life sentence. He died in 2020. 

Case 002 was the largest on the ECCC’s roster and included the bulk of the most serious crimes of the Khmer Rouge. Its defendants were some of the highest-ranking party members: Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and  Ieng Thirith. Respectively, they had served the regime as its head of state; general secretary; and ministers of foreign and social affairs. 

Cases 003 and 004 implicated Khmer Rouge military leaders and particularly brutal cadres who had carried out purges under military chief Ta Mok, who died in 2006. Documents related to these cases, which became mired in procedural issues, are mostly unclassified. 

Tola Peang, an archivist officer at the ECCC, explained there are currently about 110,000 documents simultaneously undergoing uploading and reclassification. 

The tribunal’s soon-to-be-updated database will include new functions such as optical character recognition for Khmer documents that allow for text searches and artificial intelligence capable of reading and linking concepts such as names and locations.

“[The ECCC is] the only tribunal among all the international ones that has consistently digitised all of its documents since day one,” Jovancevic said. “Every single document that is put by the judges or issued by the judges is under a digital database.”

Multiple databases, not enough understanding

In the coming years, such databases will only grow more complete as the various archiving organisations continue their work.

A 2019 survey published by DC-Cam, revealed different attitudes amongst members of the public, academics and former Khmer Rouge cadres in Cambodia over the  management of its own archive. But overall the respondents agreed these legal assets “must be stored and preserved at an institution which is credible and trusted by Cambodian people, is independent and neutral, and offers easy access.”

Other database projects include the Tuol Sleng archive in the museum established at the S-21 facility and online tools such as the e-learning platform maintained by the organisation Legal Aid of Cambodia. These groups are already working to present the country’s history to younger generations. 

However, Boravin Tan, a researcher and lecturer at the Royal University of Law and Economics in Phnom Penh, said these archives aren’t very well-known to the general public. And for the ECCC archive, Boravin said the complexity of the legal arguments and factual evidence used in the tribunal is a key challenge for legal professionals looking for insights.

She believes the ECCC archives could be an educational treasure trove if they were more accessible and their value to legal and historical study was more widely understood. 

“The most ideal initiative would be to institutionalise this [course] as part of the curriculum for legal education to make it an asset of the law school,’’ she said. 

Boravin works within the university’s Center for the Study of Humanitarian Law. She said the documents provide a factual background for a historical narrative that is often subjective.

“A completely 100% accurate record of history is not possible, but at least it [provides] a principal aspect of narrative or at least [is] trying to be a little bit more comprehensive and more critical,” she said of the archive.

As the tribunal’s residual phase continues, Youk hopes younger generations and those to come will revisit and write about the Khmer Rouge as an integral and formative part of their national history. He believes these stories need to be known for the healing process to continue. 

For Boravin, digital archives such as the ECCC provide a bridge between these generations. 

“[It is] a recognition, remembrance as well as reconciliation for the present and future of Cambodia,” she said.

The post After Khmer Rouge tribunal, Cambodian archivists preserve a brutal history appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

Though the event’s earliest roots lie in a commemoration held only in the U.S., the day went global in 1911 when more than a million people across northern Europe launched hundreds of demonstrations for women’s rights. Among other things, protesters that year denounced sex discrimination in the workforce and demanded the right for women to vote and stand for election.

Today, 8 March is recognised around the world and across our region, with Laos and Cambodia even celebrating it as a public holiday. But even as we’ve seen great progress since that first International Women’s Day hit the streets of Europe, each year this date reminds us of the work still required to build a more equal society.

Southeast Asia provides us with several positive examples of how this process can look in modern society. 

The Philippines consistently ranks either at or among the very most equal countries in the Asia Pacific in studies such as the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s annual Global Gender Gap Report. The Philippines routinely scores high marks for female participation in education, politics and the workforce. Singapore also typically places well on the global stage, boasting high average levels of safety for women and ample opportunities for employment. 

Still, on the other hand, many ASEAN countries struggle on vital metrics such as political empowerment, as measured by the number of female representatives in public offices. On that metric, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar and Brunei fell in the bottom fifth of 146 countries measured in the WEF’s report for last year.

This year, we’ve chosen a selection of our past coverage that helps us explore the persistent, striving hope for a better world that lies at the heart of International Women’s Day. Scroll through to read more.

Crumbling walls

As part of our ‘Recognising Resilience’ series published in March 2020, the Globe reported on the legacy of the bygone Binukot women ritual – a practice in which girls in certain rural Philippines villages were secluded from the world until marriage in the hopes of raising their value as wives. Teresita ‘Tarsing’ Caballero Castor, who was raised as a Binukot, told us about her life in this story of progress and tradition.

Singaporean MP calls for shifts in Southeast Asia’s struggle for gender parity

Last year, Globe managing editor Amanda Oon interviewed Singaporean MP and rights advocate Carrie Tan about women’s rights in the city-state and across the region. The result is this insightful, candid Q&A about societal pressure and the momentum for change.

Liberal laws and fetus cemeteries: Vietnam’s conflicted abortion stance

In 2021, longtime Globe contributor Govi Snell brought us this striking report on the culture of abortion in Vietnam, where the procedure is – legally, theoretically – simple to get. At the same time, abortion remains highly controversial in some parts of society, with fetus burials and “rescues” adding to a deep social stigma against the practice.

Playing with pride: Meet Cambodia’s oldest LGBT women’s football team

The fight for equality can take different forms. In the Cambodian province of Kampong Chhnang, it often plays out on the football pitch. That’s because the Women’s Under-21s team there is the first in the Kingdom dedicated to girls of all sexual orientations. Then-Globe reporter and all-around sports fan Alexi Demetriadi brought us this story of solidarity and fair play in 2020.

Mattie Do plays with expectations of Southeast Asian cinema

Another one here from Govi with this profile of Lao-American director Mattie Do, who talked a refuses to do what’s expected of her. Do spoke with the Globe last year about her then-new film, The Long Walk, which she described as giving audiences “their idea of ‘real Laos’ but with time travel and ghosts and a serial killer.” Not one to miss.

The post International Women’s Day: The persistent hope for a better world appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

As the sun rises, security personnel hired by the developers patrol the entrance of Sitio San Roque, one of the largest informal settlements of metropolitan Manila. As construction of a new business district pushes forward, the privately employed guards enforce a housing restriction in the enclave, surveilling incoming residents to confiscate construction materials that may be used to build or renovate informal shelters.

Many locals have already left for government-selected relocation areas. Others are standing their ground.

“In exchange for money, they will demolish their homes. Others were paid but they decided to stay and rent a house instead,” said Fe Seduco, a resident of Sitio San Roque’s Area J, one of the six sections that make up the 37-hectare settlement. “Sometimes there are threats. Someone would say that your home in the resettlement area will disappear if you don’t go to the housing project.”

Quezon City is going through an overhaul, and urban poor residents such as Seduco are on the verge of being squeezed out. She and the 6,000 remaining families of Sitio San Roque – down from a peak of about 17,000 – have been fighting eviction notices and demolition orders for more than a decade. But as powerful developers partnered with the government ratchet up pressure to leave, the urban poor community is fighting for more inclusive development with the help of outside advocates.

Perched on the edge of Manila, Quezon City was originally established in 1939 as a planned capital to replace its overcrowded neighbour. That scheme fell through by 1976. Since then, it  has swelled to become the most populous city in the Philippines, even as it continues to absorb new residents from rural areas seeking opportunity in the shadows of the urban landscape. 

The redevelopment now chipping away at Sitio San Roque began in 2007, when former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed an executive order greenlighting the construction of the Quezon City Business District (QCBD), a major reimagining of the downtown area. 

The president’s order cleared the way for a flurry of development plans on land managed by the National Housing Authority (NHA), the state agency responsible for public housing. 

These plans include Vertis North, a mixed-use project unveiled in 2012 as a joint venture between the NHA and real estate giant Ayala Land Inc (ALI). Reported to cost $1.5 billion, the development includes shopping malls, commercial spaces and residential towers, all either finished or under construction on land controlled by the NHA that was formerly part of Sitio San Roque.

 Some of the company’s real estate portfolio, its shopping mall and hotel, are now operational. Others, such as the One Vertis North Plaza, a 43-storey corporate tower, are scheduled to rise in 2024, while ALI hopes Vertis North will be entirely completed by 2027. 

Emmanuel Lagamson, an area coordinator of the Quezon City Housing Community Development and Resettlement Department, stressed the economic benefits of development, saying the new construction has produced jobs. 

While the projects have affected people in the area, Lagamson said the ALI-NHA partnership and the city government is making good on pledges to find relocation sites for displaced residents.

“While there are affected families, the NHA and the Ayala with the help of the local government built a committee to find possible relocation for the people. Their needs will also be sustained,” Lagamson said.  

Pushing for community-based development

But not everyone can benefit from the resettlement program. 

Only those counted in a census between 2009-17 will qualify for a state housing project. And while residents are promised at least $600 in total cash assistance, they will still have to pay for their new homes. 

Relocation sites also vary. Some would place residents in a different part of Quezon City, while others are in surrounding provinces. Residents are concerned this would place them far from the economic and social benefits of living in the city centre.

“For us, San Roque is the heart of the city,” Seduco said. “Work is located here. Public services like hospitals, schools and transport are just nearby.”

Marilou Palpagan and her husband Joseph are among the residents expecting to obtain a housing unit in a resettlement area. But the couple feels the move is like a walk on a tightrope. 

They’ve already spiralled into debt to send their child to college, and now they worry their finances – coming mostly from Joseph’s minimum-wage job as a construction worker – will fail to keep them afloat should they relocate. 

“Our income is not enough. We are borrowing money so we can eat. Recently our ATM card has been pawned,” Marilou said. “My child’s tuition fee is expensive. We still have to pay our water and electricity bills. We acquire loans and pay them with whatever is left on our wages. Then we borrow again.”

Seduco’s fate is different. Disqualified to avail of socialised homes due to the census condition, she may find herself homeless. Adamant to stay in the community, she also declined the money offered as compensation for soon-to-be evicted residents. 

Instead, Seduco and other residents have turned to activism, pushing for an on-site development plan that would provide new, affordable housing for Sitio San Roque.

Known officially as the Community Development Program (CDP), the plan was first introduced in 2019 by Save San Roque, an alliance of volunteer architects, activists and students. The group also coordinated with the urban poor advocacy organisation KADAMAY to create the program.

Based on its design plan, a section of the district will be utilised to set up a vertical housing project. Seven medium-rise buildings each with 120 residential units would shape a new neighbourhood. SSR has also asked the state to aid relocatees by providing income-based subsidies from the national budget. 

Backers of the programme say it reflects the will of the locals to participate in redevelopment as much as their determination to stay put.

“Sitio San Roque was burned nine times in the past. But our resolve is firm. We did not tremble,”  said resident Estrelieta Bagasbas. “We refuse to leave and move to relocation houses in faraway places.”

Better known by her nickname Ka Inday, the 67-year-old is the vice-chairwoman of KADAMAY. 

So far, the CDP is a focal point in the table-talk dialogues initiated by the disputing parties. Since the proposal was launched in 2019, Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte vowed to find a “win-win” solution to the conflict. This was followed by another display of support in 2021 when she assured community members that they will benefit from in-city housing programs. 

But in September, SSR posted on its Facebook page that there were no “substantial steps” enacted by the local government for the community programme to materialise. Still, SSR and KADAMAY continue to call on government officials to act on their proposals. 

For now, residents continue to trickle out, even as the most committed push for negotiations with the city government. So far, they’ve managed to halt the signing of a demolition compliance certificate by the local housing board, staving off another round of evictions. 

Prime real estate

Named after a saint Catholics prayed to in times of plague, Sitio San Roque was once a grassy area with few inhabitants. In the late 1980s when the dictatorship of former President Ferdinand Marcos was toppled, thousands of newcomers seeking new lives made their homes in the area.

Today, major roads border Vertis North, and a train station nearby ensures that one of their flagship malls will be visible to visiting consumers and residents of its new condominiums. 

The poverty of Sitio San Roque belies a clear economic reality: The land underneath the residents’ makeshift dwellings is a very hot commodity in expanding Quezon City.

Another major developer, Bloomberry Resorts, has also secured a $43.27 million property in the area from the NHA through its hotel and resort unit. Their project, a hotel and casino facility called Solaire North, is slated to open by the fourth quarter of 2023.

Both companies are owned by some of the most influential tycoons in the Philippines. ALI and its parent company, Ayala Corporation, are controlled by the Zobel de Ayala family. Bloomberry Resorts, meanwhile, is managed by port baron Enrique Razon Jr. 

Forbes’ annual profile of the wealthiest people in the Philippines listed Razon as the third richest while the Zobel de Ayala family ranked eighth. 

But even if the residents are facing powerful elites, they are still keen to preserve their community through protests and alternative development schemes like the CDP.

Such a demonstration of dissent is nothing new. On the morning of 23 September 2010, violence erupted in Sitio San Roque. A firetruck fired water cannons. The police and eviction team equipped with anti-riot gear swarmed the enclave. Glass bottles and stones, hurled in a crossfire between residents and demolition forces, rained from the sky. 

Archived media reports stated that around 300 officers, including Special Weapons and Tactics personnel, were deployed by the Philippine National Police. Meanwhile, the demolition team hired by the NHA numbered about 600. 

Refusing to vacate Sitio San Roque, protesters erected a barricade around the settlement. It took a temporary restraining order issued by a local court against the eviction to stop the conflict.

Today in Sitio San Roque, life goes on even under restrictions. Locals maintain a wet market where shoppers haggle over essentials. There’s a daycare centre that provides education to children, and a mosque to accommodate the Muslim population in their prayers. 

Ka Inday, who was at the protests in 2010, sees continued resistance as the only way to save what’s left of this community. 

“A human only has one life. If you die, you’ve run out of luck. But if you live, you still have a long way to go to fight for your right to housing,” she said. “It’s not just about me but also to the people finding hope in the struggle.”

Photos by Tristan James Biglete for Southeast Asia Globe.

The post Urban poor’s housing rights hit by metro Manila redevelopment appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

“European and [North] American resources are adequate to educate allies, there was a need for similar information to be readily available in the Singaporean context,” Khoo said, reminiscing about the early days of TransgenderSG.

The grassroots organisation was born to fill this information void and now provides essential information on navigating life as a transgender individual in Singapore, from accessing hormone replacement therapy (HRT), to finding a job as a transgender candidate or even sex-reassignment surgery.

Although seven years have passed since, transgender issues remain largely misunderstood by conservative communities in Singapore today. But the increased presence of LGBTQ+ issues in mainstream media has invited feelings of hope among activists trying to shift conservative attitudes constraining transgender individuals in areas such as school or work.

Part of that increased media visibility is a result of the repeal of Section 377A in November 2022. Debates around the clause, a remnant of British colonial rule which prohibited consensual same-sex relations between men, helped push LGBTQ+ issues to the forefront of public discourse.

“[We saw] an average of 10 to 15 LGBTQ+-related news coverage in mainstream media between February and August [2022], a pace that was unprecedented,” said Benjamin Xue of Young Out Here (YOH), an organisation providing a safe space for queer youths in Singapore.

Although the clause only restricted male same-sex activities, the repeal was welcomed by the broader queer community. As Khoo points out, “many LGBTQ+ organisations, including lesbian and transgender advocacy groups, took part in the campaign to repeal Section 377A.”

The repeal was the start of a steady stream of increased exposure of LGBTQ+ issues in the local press. In the first month of 2023, mainstream media has already highlighted several ongoing debates surrounding LGBTQ+ issues, including an opinion-editorial debating whether there is need to revise the sexual education curriculum to include LGBTQ+ topics, as well as Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s statement that “sex is not gender” in response to a question on whether sexual orientation would also be included in the upcoming law against workplace discrimination.

Both instances depict the difficulties of navigating life as a transgender individual in Singapore, between lack of information and entrenched conservative attitudes, hinting at the gaps that have yet to be addressed in the march towards equality in the Lion City. 

“[Singaporean society] remains heavily focused on gender,” from public toilets to eligibility for national service as well as official government documents, said Sylfr Tan, case manager of TransBefrienders (TBF), a local organisation providing resources and community spaces for young transgender individuals.

While the Singapore government allows transgender individuals to legally change their gender on their identity cards, doing so requires them to undergo sex-reassignment surgery, also known as gender-affirming surgery. 

“Some transgender [people] want to transition in successive stages and don’t necessarily want to immediately have to undergo surgery to be legally recognised as a man or woman,” explained Tan. “Some also don’t want to undergo surgery because they don’t believe they need to in order to validate their gender identity.” 

Gender-affirming surgery presents additional medical considerations, as it leaves patients unable to procreate. 

Tan also highlights a persisting lack of access to information on transgender-related issues, which she attributes to deeply-rooted conservative societal attitudes. 

“Because [HRT] is legal in Singapore, it’s relatively easy to find information on the ‘what’ of transitioning,” said Tan. “However, it’s harder to find out ‘how’ [to transition, access HRT, etc.] because there’s a lot of disinformation spread by conservative groups online, which can be very harmful to transgender youths.”

Restrictions imposed on public media by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Singapore’s media regulatory board, pose an additional obstacle to accessing information. Under the current IMDA guidelines, media depicting homosexual or transgender themes as subplot elements are restricted to audiences aged 18 or over. Content where such themes are featured as main plot elements automatically warrant an R21 rating, prohibiting access to audiences aged below 21.

Yu Sheng Teo, a community organiser and founder of local LGBTQ+ accessories brand Heckin’ Unicorn, expressed concerns that media censorship hinders cisgender Singaporeans from thinking about the struggles faced by their transgender peers. He believes a systemic change in societal attitudes is hard to imagine without more accessible information.  

“Many issues that concern transgender people on a daily basis are invisible to cisgender individuals unless they have a friend or family member who happens to be transgender,” he said. 

Tan also denounces the government’s intention to “protect children,” through the absence of transgender identity in Singapore’s sexual education curriculum, instead arguing that “children have a very solid understanding of what gender is, there are many times when they have lots of questions on their gender identity but don’t know how to answer those by themselves. 

A 2021 Reddit post by a 18-year-old junior college student, known as Ashlee, sparked a rare protest in the city-state when the the Ministry of Education (MOE) had prevented them from obtaining a doctor’s referral to begin HRT, despite having their parents’ permission. 

For Seth Tija, TBF’s research director, the Ashlee incident bears a mixed legacy.  While “the outpouring of support from allies, parents, and the general public has also been a heart-warming impression that progress is not unachievable,” very little positive change has happened since then.

Ashlee, who has opted to remain anonymous, has since transferred to another Polytechnic institution and declined to comment on the incident.  

According to a 2020 study conducted by TransgenderSG, a local organisation providing resources and quantitative data on the transgender experience in Singapore, 25% of surveyed trans and non-binary youths disagreed with the statement “I feel safe at school”.

Results from the survey also showed that only 24% of surveyed students felt that they had a teacher or counsellor from school they could turn to for support. 

TBF’s co-founder Coen Teo echoed these concerns, adding that social workers, teachers and school counsellors have a responsibility to foster a safe and inclusive environment for transgender youths: “These are key actors that can help improve the everyday lives of transgender [students].”

Khoo further explains how this multifaceted discrimination extends even beyond graduation.

“For those who haven’t or are transitioning [and therefore haven’t legally changed their sex yet], their job application will almost definitely out them as transgender,” Khoo said, as most job applications ask the candidate to indicate their legal gender, which may not match their outward appearance. 

Transgender individuals also face higher unemployment than their cisgender counterparts. TransgenderSG’s 2020 survey on negative attitudes in employment showed that transgender unemployment is at least 5 times higher than the average national unemployment rate 2.9%.

Organisations such as TBF and Heckin’ Unicorn have worked to not only provide outlets of expression for the local transgender community, but also make sure their message gets across to their cisgender counterparts through arts and media.

One of their most recent collaborations, an exhibition titled “Dys|Euphoria”, which ran at Singaporean picturehouse The Projector X from 11-20 November 2022, coinciding with Transgender Awareness Week, sought to explore the struggles of gender dysphoria. The term, which refers to the emotional distress experienced by individuals whose biological sex and gender identity are mismatched, has gained momentum in medical and psychiatric circles in recent years, and is increasingly recognised as a mental health struggle.

“We were concerned with cisgender people not understanding the struggles the trans community is facing, particularly gender dysphoria,” Teo told Southeast Asia Globe. He pointed out that Singapore lags behind in terms of acknowledging gender dysphoria and recognising its impact on transgender individuals, “mainly because people are unaware it is a thing.”

TBF and Heckin’ Unicorn stated that the exhibition proved successful despite an M18 rating imposed by the IMDA, which effectively restricted access to audiences aged 18 and over. Such obstacles still constrain outlets of expression for the local transgender community, and remain in place despite the repeal of Section 377A.

For activists, overcoming such obstacles will prove crucial to create a necessary shift in attitudes to make transgender people feel included. 

“The gaps are certainly wide when it comes to bridging empathy with the local population, especially regarding positive LGBT representation in media,” said Tija. “We cannot have fair conversations around transgender lives if the only thing people are allowed to see are the negatives.”

The post The renewed face of transgender activism in Singapore appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.

But what about societies living in fragile democracies or under authoritarian rule? Though we can’t see what the future holds, the political arc of 2023 could be less mysterious if we analyse Southeast Asia’s human rights and democracy records from the past year.

Globally, the number of countries moving toward authoritarianism in 2022 more than doubled the number moving toward democracy, according to the Global State of Democracy Initiative. The democratic decline was especially pronounced in Southeast Asia, a region that has experienced an extreme democratic regression in the past two decades,  and  countries such as Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam are governed under autocracies without effective rule of law.

The internet also became more restricted, having a negative impact on democracy overall through crackdowns on speech and freedom of association. Governments have shifted authoritarian practices into the digital sphere, arbitrarily arresting and prosecuting a large number of people for their online speech. 

In light of this, it comes as no surprise that trust in institutions is fading, people feel ignored and cannot take their freedom or safety for granted. As our world unfolds increasingly in the digital space, our digital rights – widely understood as human rights – must be respected, now more than ever. 

A decade ago, the UN Human Rights Council had already established that “the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, in particular freedom of expression”. However this seems a far cry from the reality for netizens in Southeast Asia, where none of the countries in the region covered by Freedom House in the 2022 Freedom on the Net Report are “free” when it comes to digital rights.

Freedom of speech is the lifeblood of democracy, essential for the discovery and dissemination of political truth, sounding the alarm when authorities commit wrongdoing. However, speaking truth to power is a crime in many Southeast Asian countries. While the internet has become a principal arena in which activists, dissidents, human rights defenders, citizen journalists, independent media and opposition political leaders express their opinions. 

The high price of free speech

Freedom on the Net 2022 found last year that global internet freedom declined for the 12^th consecutive time. One of the sharpest downgrades worldwide was documented in Myanmar, where internet freedom reached an all-time low, scoring 12/100. 

Since the February 2021 coup, the military junta has launched a brutal agenda of repression. In addition to detentions and horrific physical violence, the junta imposed nationwide internet shutdowns, blocking access to social media and messaging platforms. The military has  killed at least 2,400 people since the coup and arrested more than 16,000. It has also formally executed at least four individuals and sentenced countless others to death.

In all of the Southeast Asian countries covered by Freedom on the Net report, authorities arrested people for discussing political, religious or social topics online. 

Stories from Thailand show that a wide-ranging crackdown on fundamental freedoms has been carried out by the military-led regime. 

“The government’s goal is to truly put an end to the pro-democracy movement by exhausting activists physically and mentally in order to maintain the authoritarian establishment in power,” said Emilie Pradichit, founder and executive director of Manushya Foundation, and co-author of Freedom on the Net: Thailand Country Report. “Now, more than ever, we must mobilise and join forces to resist Thailand’s digital dictatorship and ensure pro-democracy activists remain strong and brave and can care for themselves as a priority.”

In its attempt to create a chilling effect on society as a whole, the government even used Pegasus spyware technologies to monitor, harass and silence activists, human rights defenders, journalists, and others who expose abuse and demand change. These targeted activists are fighting back – in October, they launched the first-ever lawsuit in Southeast Asia against the producer of the spyware, NSO Group. 

Clearly, free speech does not come without a price. But others in Thailand have found it more difficult to fight state repression of their digital rights.

Within less than two years, Thai police have charged more than 200 people under the draconian lèse-majesté law that authorities have used to target discussions of the monarchy and institutional reform. Worryingly, many of these people face multiple criminal charges and could receive prison sentences that range from one to three hundred years. 

In one of the most draconian and inhuman sentences up to now, a former revenue officer was sentenced to 87 years for uploading on YouTube audio clips of a radio host who criticised the monarchy. Later, the sentence was reduced, but only by half, and that was after she pled guilty. 

January 2023 was undoubtedly a month of hardship. In one fell swoop, the human rights situation has taken a drastic turn for the worse. On 26 January, pro-democracy activist Bas was sentenced to 42 years in prison – reduced to 28 for being cooperative – for Facebook posts “defaming” the monarchy. Also in January, the bail for two pro-democracy activists was withdrawn, while Tawan and Bam – withdrew their own bail to call for the release of all political prisoners. “Blood for blood. We demand our friends’ lives back,” said Tawan and Bam. They are currently on hunger and water strike, and their health is greatly deteriorating. How many more people have to suffer before the Thai government starts respecting human rights?

Cracking down on activism

However, this is not an isolated phenomenon in the region, but rather widespread. In Cambodia, activists, human rights defenders, netizens and members of opposition parties are harassed and imprisoned on account of their online activities. 

Members of the court-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) have been sentenced and prosecuted for political speech. In June 2022, no less than 50 CNRP members and supporters were found guilty for their activism, which included social media posts expressing critical views of the government. 

Authorities in Cambodia have even sought to establish a single internet gateway that would facilitate greater censorship and surveillance. The proposal has yet to be realised, but has sparked alarm within the country’s civil society.

Internet freedom is also under threat in Indonesia, and authorities disrupted Internet access in parts of the country, such as Papua and Wadas village in Central Java. But even if authoritarianism expands both in the region and in Indonesia – especially in light of the recently passed new Criminal Code – civil society resistance is also increasing. 

On 30 November 2022, Indonesian civil society organisations filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Communication and Informatics over its decision to block access to a number of online platforms that had violated the law by failing to register with the government.

Slightly better placed in the internet freedom index is Malaysia; yet, in the past few years, many online users and critics of the monarchy, government, or the Islamic religion have been arrested. Authorities censored LGBTIQ+ content, severely impacting these communities, increasing their isolation and inhibiting efforts to publicise rights violations and abuse.

 In Singapore,  authorities have arrested and sentenced people for their online activities, particularly for speech deemed critical of the government or racially divisive. Daniel De Costa, a contributor to the news website The Online Citizen, the longest-running independent online media platform that covers topics not generally covered by mainstream media, was sentenced to approximately four months in prison over a letter he wrote regarding government corruption. 

The digital grip of dictatorships

The Philippines has taken a turn towards authoritarianism over the past years and the return of the Marcos family with the May 2022 election of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as president signals a stark reminder of the dictatorial rule under Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Global Impunity Index, the Philippines is the seventh most dangerous country in the world for journalists. The murders of at least 13 journalists, including two radio commentators, are still unsolved as of 2022. Percival Mabasa, a vocal critic of Duterte and Marcos Jr., and Renato Blanco were killed within the first two months of President Marcos’ administration.

Across the sea in Vietnam is separated by the sea but kept close by authoritarian features they both display – information manipulation and a repressive environment for journalists. Vietnam is growing intensely authoritarian, being one of the last strongholds of one-party communist rule in the region. There are more than 200 activists imprisoned for exercising their fundamental rights, including freedom of expression, and at least another 350 are at risk.

Although not covered by the 2022 Freedom on the Net Report, Laos, another closed autocracy with a dismal human rights record, is likewise governed by a one-party rule that dominates all aspects of politics and restricts civil liberties. Critical speech is criminalised and repressive laws are used to crack down on everyone speaking truth to power. That is the case of prominent human rights defender, Houayheuang Xayabouly, also known as Muay, who is currently facing a prison sentence of five years in addition to a fine, and was arbitrary arrested and detained since September 2019 for denouncing the Lao government’s corruption via Facebook live streams.

Rising up against digital authoritarianism 

While it is impossible to depict Southeast Asia in a single picture, it is easy to identify the main direction that the region is heading towards – which is autocratic hardening. We may have moved from Covid-19, but the virus of digital dictatorship keeps spreading. In Thailand, there is a high chance that the situation will get worse this year. The general elections are scheduled for May and the youth will certainly voice their concerns, demand political change, true democracy, and free and fair elections – the 2019 elections were far from being free and fair. 

Looking at the situation in Myanmar, Indonesia, Cambodia, the Philippines, considering that Laos is totally closed, that Vietnam has prepared new rules to restrict content on social media platforms, and that Thailand might soon become the country with the most political prisoners in the region, we need to continue to speak with one unified voice and amplify our concerns against rising digital authoritarianism. 

This is the very reason why we co-created the ASEAN Regional Coalition to #StopDigitalDictatorship: To spark an online revolution and restore our digital democracies. Together with courageous human rights groups from Southeast Asia, we have tirelessly advocated for the respect of digital rights, named and shamed authoritarian governments to hold them into account, and to tell the world #WhatsHappeningInASEAN. 

Digital authoritarianism in Southeast Asia is not just a danger to those who live within its borders. It is also a peril for the rest of the world. That’s why not only regional, but also global solidarity is needed to echo the call for online freedom.

Digital rights are human rights and they must be respected – full stop.

Emilie Palamy Pradichit is the Founder & Executive Director of Manushya Foundation. Letitia Visan is the Human Rights Research & Advocacy Officer of Manushya Foundation, specialised in digital rights and access to justice before the UN.  Emilie and Letitia have co-authored the 2022 Freedom of the Net’s Thailand Country Report and coordinate the work of the ASEAN Regional Coalition to #StopDigitalDictatorship.

The post Digital rights are muzzled by Southeast Asia’s authoritarian regimes appeared first on Southeast Asia Globe.