UN rights chief calls for end to protest crackdowns in Bangladesh
Over the past few weeks, students in Bangladesh have been protesting against the Government to demand an end to the quota system for government jobs amid rising unemployment. As demonstrations continued, there were eruptions of violence which led to death…
Eastern Afghanistan reels from fatal storms; dozens dead, hundreds homeless
Nangarhar province, including its capital Jalalabad, is reported to be the hardest hit. This province also suffered from devastating floods in April. Other affected provinces include Badakhshan, Kunar, Laghman and Nuristan. During the daily press briefing in New York, UN…
Books offer novel way to counter prison overcrowding in the Philippines
The initiative supported by the UN office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in the Philippines is also expected to help ease chronic overcrowding in detention centres across the Southeast Asian nation. Dave*, who is one month into a six-month sentence,…
Less ‘sleeping like sardines’, as Philippines adopts Nelson Mandela Rules for jails
The Nelson Mandela Rules, which are named after the former South African president who was unjustly incarcerated for 27 years, are playing a key part in prison and penal reform in the Philippines. Ahead of Nelson Mandela International Day marked annually on 18…
DPR Korea: Forced labour is institutionalized and dangerous, warns UN rights office
In a report based on 183 interviews with victims and witnesses of forced labour who managed to escape DPRK and now live abroad, OHCHR cited one person’s testimony that if a daily work quota was not met, workers would be…
Philippines: Humane approach to incarceration relieves chronic prison overcrowding
At the Manila City Jail in the Philippines capital, prisoners lie in neat rows as they demonstrate how they sleep every night. In male dormitory number 4 most do not have a mattress or even a bed; indeed it’s not…
First Person: Filipino elderly ex-prisoner’s joy of ‘sleeping and eating’
According to Government figures, the number of inmates are four times over the planned capacity, making the Philippines one of the most overcrowded penal systems in the world alongside countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti and Uganda….
UN rights council condemns Myanmar abuses, urges immediate action
In a resolution adopted without a vote, the Council strongly condemned all violations and abuses of human rights in Myanmar, particularly following the military coup in February 2021. It called upon Myanmar “to end immediately all violence and violations…
Southeast Asia: Torture rooms and karaoke bars in gang-run ‘scam farms’
There are estimated to be some 400 of these criminal enterprises in the Philippines alone. They are almost always operated clandestinely and illegally alongside licensed and legal online gaming operations. The proliferation of online scam farms targeting victims across the…
Crushing the scam farms: Southeast Asia’s ‘criminal service providers’
As we reported earlier in the week, there has been a proliferation of illicit operations, known as scam farms, following the COVID-19 pandemic, across Southeast Asia – including in the Philippines – where they have often operated alongside legal gambling…