Original coverage by Mizzima HERE. 

The report, People Power Under Attack 2024, assesses civic space conditions in 198 countries and territories, looking at citizens’ ability to exercise their freedoms of assembly, association and expression. In the Asia-Pacific region, CIVICUS Monitor researchers found the majority of countries seriously restricted civic space.

In Myanmar, where the state of civic space is rated by the CIVICUS Monitor as ‘closed’, the arrest and prosecution of activists persisted. In Mandalay, the junta arrested individuals in February 2024 for taking part in a “silent strike” protesting the third anniversary of military rule. Jailed anti-junta protest leader Ko Wai Moe Naing was found guilty of high treason in May 2024 by the Monywa Prison court. He was sentenced to an additional 20 years by a junta court, taking his total sentence to 54 years. In June 2024, the police arrested scores of individuals who were seen wearing or carrying flowers as part of “Flower Strikes” on across Myanmar to commemorate the birthday of detained Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and to push for her release and the release of over 20,000 political prisoners.

There were continued reports of torture and ill-treatment of political prisoners including human rights defenders with impunity. According to the UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, evidence available indicates that acts of torture and ill-treatment by the junta are widespread and systematic and likely constitute crimes against humanity. There were reports of political prisoners held by the junta who died in detention over the year. Renowned Myanmar documentary filmmaker Pe Maung Same died in August 2024, due to complications from tuberculosis, three days after being transferred from Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison to a hospital.

There were also reports of the junta cancelling the passports of perceived political opponents residing abroad, disrupting their ability to travel and raising concerns about their legal status in other countries.

Journalists continued to be targeted by the junta. The body of journalist Myat Thu Tan was found in February 2024. He has been shot by two military personnel in Mrauk-U Town, in Rakhine state.  In March 2024, the editor-in-chief of People Media, Kyaw Soe Oo, was charged with ‘incitement’ following critical comments he made in a livestream video. Journalist Htet Aung was sentenced to five years in prison with hard labour in June, in a court in Sittwe, capital of Rakhine State under Section 52(a) of the country’s Anti-Terrorism Law. In August 2024, journalists Win Htut Oo and Htet Myat Thu were killed in a military raid on a home in southern Mon State. In the same month, Dawei Watch journalists Aung San Oo and Myo Myint Oo, were sentenced to 20 years and life in prison respectively by a military court inside Myeik Prison.

The junta has continued to seek ways to impose digital restrictions to block the flow of information within and from outside the country. In June 2024, VOA reported that the junta had launched a major effort to block free communication on the internet, shutting off access to virtual private networks. In July 2024, some Google apps, along with the popular messaging app Signal, appeared to be blocked inside Myanmar. The junta has also arrested and jailed people they say posted anti-junta messages on Facebook, TikTok and Telegram.

In Asia, seven countries and territories – Afghanistan, China, Hong Kong, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and North Korea – are rated as ‘Closed’. Nine countries are rated ‘repressed’ while six countries are now in the ‘Obstructed category’. Civic space in South Korea and Timor-Leste are rated ‘narrowed’ while Japan and Taiwan are the only two countries rated ‘Open’ in the Asia region.

In the Pacific, the civic space situation is more positive with seven countries rated ‘Open’. Five rated ‘Narrowed’ while Papua New Guinea and Nauru remain in the ‘Obstructed’ category.

There were changes in ratings to four countries.  Bangladesh was upgraded to ‘Repressed’ due to steps taken by the interim government to address civic space concerns following the mass protests in Bangladesh that led to the fall of the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government. Japan has also been upgraded to ‘Open’ as civil society groups were able to undertake their work across the country without barriers and the rights to peaceful assembly were generally respected and protected. Fiji was upgraded too due to improvements since the change of government in December 2022, including the repeal of a restrictive media law used to silence the press since 2010.

Mongolia on the other hand has been downgraded to ‘Obstructed’ as human rights defenders face reprisals, journalists were targeted on baseless charges for their work while peaceful protesters have been criminalised.

“The overall picture for civic space in the Asia-Pacific region this year remained dismal, despite some improvements in countries like Bangladesh, Japan and Fiji. Most people in the region are living in countries with ‘closed’ or ‘repressed’ civic space where their freedoms to speak up, organise or mobilise are under attack on a daily basis. Authoritarian states are seeking to entrench their rule and there is a critical need to support activists and civil society from these countries who are pushing back against these repressive regimes,” said Josef Benedict, CIVICUS Monitor’s Asia-Pacific researcher.

The CIVICUS Monitor rates each country’s civic space conditions based on data collected throughout the year from country-focused civil society activists, regionally-based research teams, international human rights indices and the Monitor’s own in-house experts. The data from these four separate sources are then combined to assign each country a rating as either ‘Open,’ ‘Narrowed,’ ‘Obstructed,’ ‘Repressed’ or ‘Closed.’

The most widespread violation to civic freedoms in the Asia Pacific documented over the past year was the detention of protesters. ​​Activists took to the streets for a wide range of issue, including demands for democratic reforms, labour rights, environmental justice, and calling for an end to the human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. In many cases, the security forces resorted to excessive force leading to injuries and even unlawful killings.

Among the countries where this was documented include Pakistan where the government crackdown on the opposition around the elections. In Bangladesh, hundreds were detained as part of a brutal crackdown on the mass student-led protests in July 2024, that eventually brought down the Sheikh Hasina regime. In Sri Lanka police cracked down on protests by the opposition, students and ethnic Tamils while in India farmers mobilising protests faced excessive force. While in Indonesia, the security forces repressed multiple protests in the region of Papua, where there has been a high level of violations. Protesters across Australia mobilising for environmental issues and to end the war in Gaza were detained.

“These actions are a flagrant violation of the rights to peaceful assembly guaranteed under international human rights law and standards,” added Benedict.

Another top violation that was documented across the region was the detention and prosecution of human rights defenders. The main perpetrators were China, Hong Kong, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and India. Many were criminalised for defamation and on fabricated charges linked to national security, anti-terrorism or public order laws. In addition, transnational repression, where countries collaborate to target human rights defenders beyond their borders, is on the rise.

Censorship is also a key concern in the region, most noticeably in China, where the government employs one of the most sophisticated censorship regimes in the world. Other countries where censorship was documented include North Korea, Myanmar, Pakistan and India. Over the year, the authorities used their power to restrict access to information critical of the state by blocking television broadcasts and news portals, restricting access to social media apps, suspending mobile internet services and targeting journalists and news outlets. There was an increase of censorship ahead of elections in Pakistan and Bangladesh. In the Pacific, there were censorship concerns in Nauru and the Solomon Islands.

“Governments across the region sought to detain and prosecute human rights defenders across the year on trumped-up charges using a range of repressive laws. Censorship was also pervasive in a number of countries to stifle critical voices and block the critical flow of information. The international community must do more to protect fundamental freedoms and support activists in detention,” added Benedict.

The CIVICUS Monitor is a research tool that provides quantitative and qualitative data on the state of civil society and civic freedoms in 198 countries and territories. The data is generated through a collaboration with more than 20 civil society research partners, and input from a number of independent human rights evaluations. The data provides the basis for civic space ratings and countries can be rated as either ‘Closed’, ‘Repressed’, ‘Obstructed’, ‘Narrowed’ or ‘Open’.

Download CIVICUS's Report HERE.