Asia Democracy Chronicles

T he pickup truck had suddenly appeared and overtook the tricycle Emman and a fellow environmental activist were on. The truck then blocked the tricycle’s path and forced it to a screeching stop. Before Emman and his companion could react, several armed men had dragged them off their ride and shoved them into the pickup. That was more than a year ago. But Emman remains so traumatized that he has relocated from his home province of Pangasinan, in the Philippine north, to Metro Manila.

T Trịnh Bá Phương’s exceedingly quick and closely guarded public hearing in Đà Nẵng on the 27th of September did not surprise any observer or practitioner of Vietnam’s human rights situation. Secrecy is a common feature of trials of human rights defenders in the country. Yet this particular trial was unprecedented in Vietnam.

Have a story to tell, nuanced insights, or expert analysis to share with a regional (i.e. Asia), even global, audience? Want to weigh in on specific issues, including those disproportionately affecting specific segments of society, which run the gamut from poverty and inequality to human rights violations? We’d love to hear from you. We run features, op-eds, analyses, among others, that probe issues around fundamental rights and civil liberties, and illuminate the challenges of governance in Asia.

I n most parts of the world, bombings and gunfire always make the news. In the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan, people no longer react with surprise over yet another armed attack taking place near or in their communities, and claiming the lives of relatives, friends, and neighbors.

Have a story to tell, nuanced insights, or expert analysis to share with a regional (i.e. Asia), even global, audience? Want to weigh in on specific issues, including those disproportionately affecting specific segments of society, which run the gamut from poverty and inequality to human rights violations? We’d love to hear from you. We run features, op-eds, analyses, among others, that probe issues around fundamental rights and civil liberties, and illuminate the challenges of governance in Asia.

L ike other bustling metropolises, Hong Kong sees millions commute daily between the city center and their homes. For residents of Tai Po, a district in the city’s New Territories, the sight of eight distinctive high-rise buildings near the Tolo Highway serves as a landmark: after a long day of work and a bus ride, they know they are almost home. Similarly, visitors know it is almost time to disembark when they spot these apartments.

I n most agricultural areas, tallies are all about produce — such as how many sacks of rice each field can yield per season, how many bushels of corn per farm, or how many liters of milk per cow. In Maharashtra and Telangana in India, most of the tallies are bales of cotton, a major product that the two states have in common. But there is a tally that both would rather not have: farmer suicides.

“D o I deserve to be treated that way?” was the title of a blog post Megan Steven contributed to an Australian media outlet in 2021. A Malaysian who was assigned male at birth but now publicly identifies as a trans woman, she recounted in her post how she was brutally attacked at 18-years old while going out alone in the morning, as well as being bullied by a customer while working in a store – solely because of her identity as a trans woman.

T wo children below the age of six are denied the right to travel on grounds of “endangering national security.” Beginning at kindergarten, a boy keeps getting denied admission to schools that have been told to turn him away. A teenager is forcibly disappeared while overseas. All these are the doing of Chinese authorities.

D own through the narrow lanes of Kalanki, where Kathmandu’s buildings crowd tight, 17-year-old Keshav BK lies on a thin mattress inside a cramped room he shares with his older brother. A bullet is lodged deep in his right thigh, and there are nights when he wakes up from nightmares in which he is shot all over again. The Grade 12 student has been unable to attend school for two months now, and even missed his October exams.