FORUM-ASIA reports shrinking civic space across Asia as HRD crackdowns increase

28 August 2025 | 09:15 CAT
2-minute read

In its sixth biennial Defending in Numbers: Reclaiming Civic Space, Unbroken Voices report, released on 14 July 2025, FORUM-ASIA delivers a stark assessment of the deteriorating status of civic freedoms across Asia—including judicial harassment, violence, censorship, and a troubling rise in transnational repression. Yet, amid the threats, stories of resilience shine through.

During an interview on Radio Islam International, Hye Joon Lee, Human Rights Defenders Program Officer at FORUM-ASIA, highlighted growing authoritarian trends spanning 2023 to 2024.

She cited escalating surveillance, repression through legal systems, and persistent impunity as central challenges facing human rights defenders (HRDs).

Pointing to specific tactics, Lee stated: “We are seeing an increase of authoritarianism and state-mandated violence or violence with impunity.”

These disturbing developments are particularly acute for environmental, indigenous, and gender-justice defenders, among others, while youth, students, and investigative journalists remain especially vulnerable.

Nationwide patterns include:

• Judicial harassment—arbitrary arrests and detentions, often under pretextual laws.
• Physical violence, intimidation, censorship, and surveillance, systematically used to stifle dissent.
• Transnational repression—harassment and abductions executed beyond borders, as noted in the report.

Regarding journalists, Lee underscored their vital—and perilous—role.

“Media workers and journalists … are the number one group of defenders that have faced … the highest number of violations in the region,” Lee said.

In many countries, investigative reporting exposes corruption and human rights abuses—resulting in retaliation from authorities. In Bangladesh and Indonesia, covering peaceful demonstrations placed journalists at risk of harassment, threats, physical violence, and even lethal outcomes. In some instances, journalists have been wrongfully labelled terrorists—a tactic to discredit independent reporting.

Despite mounting pressures, civil society persists. Hye Joon Lee reflected on emerging signs of hope.

“Success stories of protest movements. The example of South Korea… all of the people have gone out on the streets … and there was a change in government as a result of that.”

She also noted incremental legal protections at local levels, such as newly passed ordinances in the Philippines—small yet meaningful steps toward safeguarding defenders.

Further corroborating these trends, the CIVICUS Monitor’s 2024 Asia-Pacific report reveals that seven countries—including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan—are rated as either “closed” or “repressed” in terms of civic space, with Indonesia designated “obstructed”. Only Japan and Taiwan earned “open” civic space ratings.

Bangladesh, however, experienced a relative improvement: an “upgrade” from closed to repressed after protests led to the fall of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government in August 2024. Measures such as releasing detained HRDs, forming an inquiry into enforced disappearances, and scrapping jail terms against Odhikar HRDs played key roles in this adjustment.

The Defending in Numbers report paints a sobering yet unresolved picture: governments across Asia are tightening their grip, yet civil society’s voice persists. Hye Joon Lee’s reflections underscore that even amid deepening repression, community mobilisation, local policy gains, and journalism continue to fortify the fragile terrain of rights and freedoms.

Watch the Asia Pacific Report on Sabaahul Muslim with Muallima Annisa Essack.