Reports

30 May 2023

Human rights impacts of new technologies on civic space in South-East Asia

While the expansion of Internet access and proliferation of digital technologies has created unprecedented opportunities, it has also brought about online harms such as the accelerated spread of hate speech and provided State and non-State actors with tools for targeting critics and competitors, and to undermine democratic governance. Digital tools have also been used to surveil and harass dissenting voices.

This report draws attention to the many recent laws and regulations governing online space in South-East Asia, several of which appear to reinforce and expand pre-existing restrictions of freedoms of expression, association and privacy.

16 Dec 2022

Human Rights and Temporary Labour Migration Programme in and from Asia and the Pacific

Temporary labour migration programmes (TLMPs) are a dominant feature of the migration landscape in and from the Asia-Pacific region, where millions of migrant workers move along these corridors usually to take up fixed-term, low-wage work in sectors such as agriculture, construction, care work or the service industry. This analytical study explores the consequences of these programmes for the human rights of migrant workers and of their families. Recognising that there are well-documented concerns about labour rights abuses on TLMPs, the study focuses on migrants’ experiences beyond the workplace, understanding migrants not just as workers but as human beings and rights-holders fully entitled to all human rights.

26 Oct 2022

Immigration Detention and Alternatives to Detention in the Asia Pacific Region

This Report is intended to inform and support preparations for the first International Migration Review Forum (IMRF) in May 2022, as well as serve as a useful resource for post-IMRF implementation efforts in the Asia Pacific region. This report summarises the results of a mapping of the use of immigration detention and alternatives to immigration detention (ATD) in 19 countries across the five sub-regions of the Asia-Pacific region: East and North-East Asia, South-East Asia, South and South-West Asia, North and Central Asia, and the Pacific. This report also includes an Annex with more detailed profiles for each country included in the research mapping.

This publication was produced by International Detention Coalition with the support of OHCHR, the Regional UN Network on Migration for the Asia Pacific, and the Global UN Network on Migration.

16 May 2022

Pathways to Migrant Protection

This study of the policy and practice of 17 countries in the Asia Pacific region seeks to understand how human rights obligations may be embedded in mechanisms for entry and stay, and thereby assist States to know and understand the policy options that are available to them to govern migration and promote and protect the human rights of all migrants under their jurisdiction. It also aims to provide States and other stakeholders with information and analysis of practices that currently exist in the region or have potential to offer regular pathways for migrants in vulnerable situations, including practices that have been put in place between 2020-21 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This information may assist States to identify best practices for improving migration governance and eventually for enhancing implementation of the Global Compact for Migration.

18 December 2020

Asia Pacific Migration Report

The Asia-Pacific Migration Report 2020 is a baseline assessment of the implementation of the Global Compact for Migration (GCM) in Asia and the Pacific. It will inform the Asia-Pacific Regional Review of GCM Implementation, to be held from 10 to 12 March 2021. The report presents an overview of migration in Asia and the Pacific. It discusses GCM implementation in the context of the indicative clusters of GCM objectives presented in General Assembly resolution 73/326. It also discusses short- and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on migrants and their families, and recommends future collaborative action by governments and relevant stakeholders in order to achieve safe, orderly and regular migration in Asia and the Pacific. Throughout the report there is discussion of the core United Nations purposes and principles on which the GCM is based, including the United Nations Charter, international human rights law, international labour law, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The publication is the product of collaboration among the members of the Regional United Nations Network on Migration for Asia and the Pacific.

4 June 2020

OHCHR Report on the Situation of Human Rights in the Philippines

In its resolution 41/2, the Human Rights Council requested the High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a comprehensive written report on the situation of human rights in the Philippines and to present it at its forty-fourth session. This report presents an overview of the current human rights situation in the Philippines, guided by concerns highlighted in the preamble of Council resolution 41/2. It considers critical, ongoing issues, particularly where there are indications of long-standing, systematic causes underpinning them. In establishing trends and patterns, the report examines data since 2015 where possible, while also taking into account relevant developments prior to that.

drug realted offences report

2019

2019: Drug-Related Offences, Criminal Justice Responses and the Use of the Death Penalty in South-East Asia

The Human Rights Council recommends, in accordance with article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the jurisprudence of the United Nations Human Rights Committee and the United Nations Economic and Social Council Safeguards that guarantee protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty1 (see chapter II, section A of this document), as well as other international standards, that persons convicted of drug-related offences should not be subject to the death penalty.