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Human Rights in Asia
Friday, 08 June 2012 16:40

Amnesty International is a tough judge of human rights in all countries.  According to Amnesty, my home country "Australia continued to violate the rights of Indigenous Peoples, stripping essential services from Aboriginal homelands. Refugee policy favoured deterrence, with mandatory, indefinite and remote detention for asylum-seekers arriving by boat".

But its 2012 Annual Report on the state of the world's human rights highlights vividly the growing tensions between Asia's miraculous economic growth and the region's poor human rights record.  Set out below are some key extracts from this report.

Zhu Yufu was detained by Chinese authorities in March, with the prosecutor citing a poem as key evidence in support of the charge of “inciting subversion of state power”.  Here is the offending poem:

“It’s time, people of China! It’s time.
China belongs to everyone.
Of your own will
It’s time to choose what China shall be.”


Here are some of Amnesty's reports on key Asian countries.



If there is one country that is worse than China, it is:

North Korea

The year ended with Kim Jong-un succeeding his father as absolute ruler of the country on 17 December, but there were no indications of an improvement in the country’s dismal human rights record. North Koreans continued to suffer violations of nearly the entire spectrum of their human rights. Six million North Koreans urgently needed food aid and a UN report found that the country could not feed its people in the immediate future. There were reports of the existence of numerous prison camps where arbitrary detention, forced labour, and torture and other ill-treatment were rife. Executions, including public executions, persisted. Collective punishment was common. Violations of freedom of expression and assembly were widespread.

Its southern neighbor is feted as a triumph of democracy, but ...

South Korea

The government increasingly invoked the National Security Law to restrict freedom of expression, particularly in the context of discussions pertaining to North Korea. The authorities closely monitored the internet and social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. There were no executions. Migrant workers remained vulnerable following the Constitutional Court’s ruling against job mobility and a government crackdown against undocumented migrants.

Singapore's elite believes that its benevolent dictatorship is superior to democracy, but:


Opposition candidates made small but unprecedented gains in the May parliamentary elections, winning six out of 87 seats. The government used restrictive laws to silence its critics, bringing criminal defamation cases against them and censoring the media. The death penalty, administrative detention and judicial caning were retained in law and practice.

Singapore's neighbors are very weak democracies:


The authorities unleashed a brutal campaign of repression when a mass movement for fair elections swept the capital in July. More than 1,600 people were detained after a violent crackdown on the peaceful demonstration. In September, the government announced its intention to replace the Internal Security Act (ISA) with new security laws.


Violence intensified in the internal armed conflict in southern Thailand, with insurgents increasingly targeting civilians and staging indiscriminate attacks in which civilians were killed. Security forces continued to torture and ill-treat detainees in the South. For the eighth consecutive year, no official was convicted of perpetrating human rights violations in the South, and none was prosecuted for deaths that occurred during the 2010 anti-government demonstrations. Authorities continued to persecute those peacefully expressing their opinion, primarily through the use of the lèse majesté law and Computer-related Crimes Act. Authorities tightened restrictions on asylum-seekers and refugees from Myanmar, particularly during massive flooding, and exploited migrant workers from neighbouring countries.


Indonesia assumed the chair of ASEAN and in May was elected to the UN Human Rights Council for a third consecutive term. The government strengthened the national police commission but police accountability mechanisms remained inadequate. The security forces faced persistent allegations of human rights violations, including torture and other ill-treatment and use of unnecessary and excessive force. Provincial authorities in Aceh increasingly used caning as a judicial punishment. Peaceful political activities continued to be criminalized in Papua and Maluku. Religious minorities suffered discrimination, including intimidation and physical attacks. Barriers to sexual and reproductive rights continued to affect women and girls. No executions were reported.

Unfortunately Burma's reforms are receiving more publicity than the government's continued violations of human rights.



Despite its proud reputation as the world's biggest democracy ...





According to Nobel-prize-winning economist Amartya Sen, "development is freedom".  Amnesty International's annual report reminds us that dynamic Asia has experienced a lot more economic growth than development.



Amnesty International.  Annual Report 2012, "The state of the world's human rights".



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