Overview

Political turmoil, repression and armed conflict contributed to a worrying human rights picture in the region. Yet despite huge risks, human rights defenders and activists continued to claim their rights and speak out against oppression.

New laws curtailed rights further, including to freedom of expression. Protests were frequently responded to with unlawful force often resulting in casualties. Political opponents, human rights defenders, journalists and others were subjected to surveillance, arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment and unlawful killing. These and other violations were facilitated by impunity, although a court decision and truth commission recommendations offered hope of reparations for victims in Japan and South Korea.

Extreme weather, rising sea levels and other slow onset events caused more devastation, yet governments again failed to take the urgent action needed to tackle climate change and adapt to climate-related harms.

A significant escalation in the armed conflict in Myanmar resulted in further grave violations of international law. Rights, particularly those of women and girls, became even more restricted under Taliban rule in Afghanistan, and severe repression of dissent continued in China and North Korea.

There was progress towards recognition of LGBTI rights in some countries. However, systematic gender-based discrimination and violence against women, girls and LGBTI people remained pervasive. The rights of Indigenous Peoples and of ethnic and descent-based minorities were routinely ignored during extraction and development projects. Violations of economic and social rights, including to housing and education, remained high. People fleeing conflict and repression were too often put at risk by forcible deportations or indefinite arbitrary detention.

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