Category Archives: News

19May/22

Quad Leaders: Spotlight Rights, Democracy in Asia

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From top left, clockwise: US President Joe Biden. © 2022 AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta; Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. © 2021 Toru Hanai/Pool Photo via AP; Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. © 2022 Darrian Traynor/Pool Photo via AP; and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. © 2022 AP Photo/Ajit Solanki.

(Tokyo) – Leaders of the United States, Japan, India, and Australia should reach agreements on new measures to address human rights crises and democratic backsliding in Asia, Human Rights Watch said today. The Quad, a security alliance of the leaders of the four countries, is meeting in Tokyo on May 22, 2022.

“The Quad needs to place Asia’s massive human rights and humanitarian crises at the heart of its discussions and decisions,” said John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “Although each has vastly different causes and features, the human rights crises in Afghanistan, Myanmar, North Korea, and Sri Lanka should all be high on the security agenda.”

A central purpose of the Quad alliance is to counter the rising authoritarian influence of the Chinese government in Asia. To advance that goal, the Quad needs to better promote human rights institutions, democratic governance, and the rule of law domestically and regionally, Human Rights Watch said. Quad leaders should reach common positions on addressing major human rights crises in the region and speak publicly on specific concerns.

On Myanmar, Quad leaders need to move beyond relying on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its failed “five point consensus.” Quad leaders, along with like-minded ASEAN members Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore, should agree on a stronger, coordinated effort to steer the Myanmar junta toward reform, including by increasing restrictions on its foreign currency revenues and weapons purchases.

Like-minded countries should develop a clear, time-bound approach to pressure the junta to end its abuses. The approach should include imposing and better enforcing new sanctions on oil and gas revenues, as well as on human rights abusers and military entities. Quad countries should support a United Nations Security Council resolution imposing a global arms embargo on Myanmar, which purchases large amounts of weapons from both China and Russia.

On Afghanistan, Quad leaders should agree to coordinate with other governments to press the Taliban to abandon their restrictive and abusive policies and practices, including bans on women’s secondary schooling and restrictions on women’s travel, employment, and dress. Japan, India, and Australia should urge the US to reach an agreement with Taliban authorities about restrictions in place on the Afghanistan Central Bank and on World Bank-administered assistance for education and health. These restrictions are severely exacerbating the country’s economic situation and are driving its humanitarian crisis.

On North Korea, Quad leaders should agree to integrate human rights issues into diplomatic approaches and support including human rights benchmarks in any future negotiations with Kim Jong Un and the North Korean government. They should also discuss outreach to the government to offer assistance to address the gravely deteriorating economic and humanitarian situation and the new Covid-19 outbreak.

On Sri Lanka, Quad leaders should recognize that the roots of the country’s current economic and political crisis lie in longstanding corruption and a lack of transparency, and that the route to stability and economic recovery depends on increasing respect for human rights, strengthening the rule of law, and ensuring accountability. The Quad should support economic programs, including from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), that seek to protect the most vulnerable from the worst effects of the economic crisis, while promoting political reforms to better protect fundamental rights and seek justice for past abuses.

Quad leaders should recognize that their credibility to speak on human rights abuses also requires addressing the many deficiencies in their own records. Human Rights Watch has extensively raised serious human rights issues for decades with the governments of the US, Japan, India, and Australia.

“The Quad should recognize that working to improve the human rights of people in Asia is consistent with addressing the authoritarianism of the Chinese government,” Sifton said. “Genuine security in the region depends on people in Asia being able to fully exercise their fundamental human rights and democratic freedoms.”

19May/22

Number of internally displaced people reaches 59.1 million worldwide

Countries: Afghanistan, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Iraq, Libya, Mozambique, Myanmar, Philippines, Somalia, South Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, World
Source: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre

Up from 55 million a year earlier, the unprecedented figure is the result of new waves of violence, protracted conflict and disasters, according to IDMC’s annual report.

19May/22

US/South Korea: Promote Rights in North Korea

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US President Joe Biden, left, and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, right.
© 2021 AP Photo/Alex Brandon, and 2022 Jeon Heon-Kyun/Pool Photo via AP

(Seoul) – US President Joseph Biden and newly elected South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol should pledge to include human rights benchmarks in future negotiations with North Korea, Human Rights Watch said today. Biden is visiting South Korea on May 20-21, 2022, and will meet with Yoon to discuss economic and security issues, including North Korea’s growing nuclear weapon capacities.

“The United States and South Korea have for too long viewed the situation in North Korea primarily through the lens of North Korea’s nuclear weapons development,” said Lina Yoon, senior Koreas researcher at Human Rights Watch. “It’s crucial for negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to address the country’s human rights and humanitarian crisis.”

Weapons proliferation issues cannot be separated from human rights concerns, Human Rights Watch said. The North Korean military depends on widespread forced labor and a massive diversion of government resources from basic human needs for arms development. US law makes broad sanctions relief for North Korea contingent on human rights improvements, and counter-proliferation experts have acknowledged that successful monitoring of weapons agreements requires more general reforms by the North Korean government.

The US and South Korea should also increase efforts at the United Nations Security Council to hold new debates on the human rights situation in North Korea.

Biden and Yoon should also discuss humanitarian outreach to the North Korean government and how to provide assistance to address the country’s deteriorating economic and humanitarian situation and recently reported Covid-19 outbreak, Human Rights Watch said.

Since early 2020, North Korea has been imposing unnecessary and extreme restrictions that tighten government control over its northern border with China and Russia, the domestic movement of people and products, and information.

“The North Korean government has used Covid-19 restrictions to further oppress its people and restrict commercial activity and freedom of movement, creating a crisis over access to food, medicine, and other essential goods,” Lina Yoon said. “The UN and governments around the world should encourage North Korea to accept offers of monitored deliveries of food, medicine, vaccines, and the infrastructure to preserve and distribute vaccines.”

In August 2020, North Korea’s leadership responded to the pandemic by creating “buffer zones” on the border with China and Russia, and ordered soldiers to “unconditionally shoot” on sight anybody entering without permission. The government banned nearly all international travel.

It also blocked almost all official and unofficial trade, and limited domestic travel to the movement of essential personnel and goods, imposing almost de facto provincial lockdowns. As a result, food and other essential goods were kept from entering the country, and the capacity to move products internally decreased, causing shortages of basic necessities.

As up to 80 to 90 percent of products sold in North Korean markets are from China, many people lost the ability to make money. Many products, like medicines, cooking oil, or spices, are either not available, or in some cases, prices have gone up 10, 20, or 30 times, several people with contacts in North Korea told Human Rights Watch.

Pyongyang, to prevent dissent and to stop communication with the outside world, adopted a new law in December 2020 that bans distribution of media originating from South Korea, the United States, or Japan, punishable by long prison terms and possibly the death penalty.

North Koreans have had almost no access to the Covid-19 vaccine, as the North Korean government rejected several offers of vaccines. Many North Koreans are also chronically malnourished, leaving them with compromised immune systems. Medicines of any kind are scarce in the country, and the healthcare infrastructure is extremely fragile, lacking medical supplies, such as oxygen and other Covid-19 therapeutics.

North Korea’s meager economy has significantly contracted in recent years due to lockdowns, border closures, and intensifying UN Security Council sanctions. The current nationwide lockdown can be expected to hinder the agricultural harvest, already impacted by drought, which is crucial for the country’s economy. The extent of North Korea’s humanitarian crisis is unknown, as virtually all international aid providers pulled out of the country during earlier lockdowns.

In 2021, the Food and Agricultural Organization estimated that North Korea would face a gap between available and needed food in 2022 of over one million tons. UNICEF, the UN children’s fund, previously estimated that only one in three North Korean children receive a minimally adequate diet, and one in five are stunted due to malnutrition. In 2020, the US Department of Agriculture estimated that more than 15 million North Koreans, almost 60 percent of the population, were food insecure meaning that more than half of the population was expected not to have enough food to eat, or would suffer from uncertain access to food. Those figures were calculated before the border closures and lockdowns.

“The US and South Korea should urgently try to persuade North Korea to allow outside humanitarian assistance and accept offers of aid,” Lina Yoon said. “North Koreans are facing a uniquely acute catastrophe, and the world should make every effort to address it.”