• State-backed anti-LGBT programs in Malaysia;
  • Japan could be complicit in Myanmar army abuses;
  • UN Chief’s Bangladesh visit should highlight enforced disappearances;
  • Philippines’ activist charged under unjust cybercrime laws;
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Justice for Sisters and HRW released a new report today documenting how persistent Malaysian government-sponsored discrimination threatens the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. The government actively blocks LGBT rights advocacy by shutting down events and censoring music. Universities have stifled programs that create awareness on gender diversity. Malaysia’s laws punishing same-sex conduct, and government sponsored conversion camps send a dangerous message that LGBT people should change themselves.

In December 2021, HRW urged the Japanese government to stop training Myanmar army officers because it risked making Japan complicit in military atrocities. Japan responded that the ministry did not have any information about what officers trained in Japan do once they go back to Myanmar. Now, a Japan-trained Myanmar army general, Brigadier Gen. Tin Soe has been implicated in serious abuses. Forces under Tin Soe were responsible for massacring civilians in Shan and Karenni States. Teppei Kasai, HRW’s Asia program officer says, “The Japanese government should stop playing with fire and immediately end its support of Myanmar’s military.”

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet will visit Bangladesh from August 14-18. She will meet top government officials and visit Rohingya refugee camps. Hundreds of Bangladeshis have been forcibly disappeared, tortured, and killed since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took office in 2009. Enforced disappearances have become a hallmark of Hasina’s regime. If the high commissioner fails to clearly condemn these abuses and seek reform, Bangladesh leadership could use her silence to legitimize its abuses and undermine activists. 

And finally, Philippine police arrested Walden Bello, a 76-year-old social activist, academic, and former congressman on charges of cyber-libel. Bello is a leftist progressive voice well-known in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. He unsuccessfully ran for vice president in May. He used his candidacy as a platform to highlight progressive and social justice issues during the campaign. The Philippines’ cyber-libel law, has been used several times against journalistscolumnistscritics of the government, and ordinary social media users. As of May 2022 3,700 cyber-libel cases were filed. Laws like the cyber-libel law should be amended to remove criminal defamation provisions.