• Human Rights in Singapore

    Election returns brought no changes to Singapore’s reliance on the Internal Security Act to hold, without charge or judicial review,those suspected of subversion, espionage, and terrorism. Laws requiring mandatory death sentences, judicial caning, and criminalization of male same-sex relations remain in force. Government authorities still curtail rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly. They deny legitimacy to associations of ten or more, if they deem the groups “prejudicial to public peace, welfare or good order. ” The government requires police permits for five or more people planning a public event, and it uses contempt of court, criminal and civil defamation, and sedition charges to rein in critics.  

  • Hong Kong lawmaker and labor union representative Lee Chuck-yan (R) takes part in a protest outside the Singapore Consulate in Hong Kong on December 5, 2012, demanding the release of a Chinese immigrant bus driver being sentenced to jail in Singapore after a protest in late November.
    © 2012 Reuters
    Singapore: Drop Charges Against Bus Strike Leaders
    Singapore authorities should immediately drop charges against four migrant Chinese bus drivers who face trial on December 6, 2012, for leading a two-day work stoppage.
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    Ending Abuses Against Migrant Domestic Workers in Singapore
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Singapore

  • Singapore: Drop Charges Against Bus Strike Leaders
    Dec 5, 2012
    Singapore authorities should immediately drop charges against four migrant Chinese bus drivers who face trial on December 6, 2012, for leading a two-day work stoppage.
  • Civil Society Denounces Adoption of Flawed ASEAN Human Rights Declaration
    Nov 19, 2012
    Disregarding the deep concerns expressed by senior United Nations officials, human rights experts and hundreds of civil society and grassroots organisations at the national, regional and international levels, ASEAN leaders nonetheless adopted yesterday an “ASEAN Human Rights Declaration” that undermines, rather than affirms, international human rights law and standards.
  • Singapore: Yale to Curtail Rights on New Campus
    Jul 19, 2012
    Yale University’s acceptance of Singaporean government restrictions on basic rights at the new Yale-National University of Singapore (NUS) joint campus shows a disturbing disregard for free speech, association, and assembly.
  • ASEAN: Ensure Declaration Meets Rights Standards
    Jul 8, 2012

    Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should make a public commitment to ensure that the forthcoming ASEAN Human Rights Declaration will fully comply with international human rights standards. 

  • ASEAN: Less than Adequate
    Jun 21, 2012
    Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists, Human Rights Watch, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Dignity International, and Article 19 welcome the first official consultation between ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) and civil society organisations (CSOs) on the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD), which is due to take place in Kuala Lumpur on June 22, 2012 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel.
  • Betraying human rights, ASEAN style
    May 14, 2012

    This past week in Bangkok, the ASEAN Inter-government Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) discussed one of the most important documents drafted by ASEAN since the regional grouping adopted the ASEAN Charter five years ago.  

  • Singapore: Commute Death Sentence in Drug Case
    Apr 29, 2012

    President Dr. Tony Tan Keng Yam of Singapore should commute the death sentence in the heroin possession case of Yong Vui Kong.

  • Letter to Singapore President Tan Keng Yam regarding Yong Vui Kong's Death Sentence
    Apr 29, 2012
    Human Rights Watch writes to urge you to use your powers as president to commute Yong Vui Kong’s death sentence.
  • ASEAN’s road to nowhere?
    Apr 26, 2012
    In July, the ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Phnom Penh will receive one of the most important documents drafted since the adoption five years ago of the ASEAN Charter.
  • Singapore: Domestic Workers to Get Weekly Day of Rest
    Mar 5, 2012
    The decision by Singapore’s Manpower Ministry to grant foreign domestic workers a weekly rest day is an important reform but falls short of international standards. The changes, announced on March 5, 2012, go into effect only for new contracts beginning in January 2013 and do not address the exclusion of domestic workers from other key labor protections in Singapore’s Employment Act.
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