2.8 Navigating a Narrowing Landscape: Strategies to Counter Judicial Harassment against Human Rights Defenders
2nd November, 13:30 – 15:30 pm, Room: Kristal Ballroom 1
Background: Authorities have curtailed civil space in Asia through crackdown on peaceful protests, regulation and sanctions of civil society organizations and criminalizing legitimate activities of human rights defenders. Such practice of judicial harassment using legal and judicial system is a common tactic used by the governments in Asia to silence and intimidate critics and HRDs.
Both state and non-state actors have targeted HRDs to stop them from conducting their human rights work. FORUM-ASIA documentation shows that judicial harassment was the most common form of violation against HRDs in 2021 and 2022.[1] This often-involved arbitrary arrest and detention of HRDs with many resulting in their imprisonment, denial of fair trials and enactment of repressive legislations and policies. This trend has been found to be consistent with previous years.
While most of the States failed to respond to violations against the HRDs, they themselves are the main perpetrators in many cases by clamping down the civil space and punishing human rights work. States like India and the Philippines have used terrorism laws to keep defenders in prolonged detention while countries like Bangladesh, Indonesia have charged defenders under information and technology related laws for putting their criticism through online platforms.
As the operating space for CSOs and HRDs being increasingly restrictive in Asia, discussions need to take place to create advocacy strategies to deter the authorities from initiating such harassment in the first place. In the meantime, it is also important to be prepared to face these strategies commonly used by the state and non-state actors to mitigate their impacts.
Objectives
- To learn from the HRDs/organisations’ experiences on dealing with the judicial harassment cases
- To collectively explore ways on countering increasing weaponization of laws against HRDs/organisations
[1] https://forum-asia.org/?p=38273
This post was originally published on FORUM-ASIA.
