Report Launch
Parliamentarians at Risk: Reprisals against oppositions MPs in Southeast Asia in 2021
Poster of the Press Conference on 2 December 2021
HSF
The report documents and analyses the proliferated and intensified threats and human rights abuses against MPs in South East Asia this year. This includes a sharp increase of MPs in detention -- from one in 2020 to ninety one in 2021; the purported responses to the COVID-19 pandemic used to suppress public participation and expression of dissenting opinions; and the rise of online abuse and judicial harassment against opposition MPs.
Importantly, the report shed some light to the deterioration of human rights situation and democratic standards in the whole region, notably Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines, in addition to the coup in Myanmar which has already gained abundant media attention.
“Indeed, the year 2021 is a dark year for human rights in our part of the world. The arrest, detention and judicial harassment of one parliamentarian is one too many and it affects all of us.”
– Philippine Senator Leila de Lima
The report also includes key recommendations toward all relevant stakeholders to ensure that MPs can exercise their mandates free from undue interferences and reprisals.
Cover of the Report “Parliamentarians at Risk: Reprisals against oppositions MPs in Southeast Asia in 2021”
HSF
The full report can be accessed online via the Hanns Seidel Foundation Thailand’s website:
Parliamentarians at Risk: Reprisals against oppositions MPs in Southeast Asia in 2021
(PDF 4 MB)
The online press conference is available on HSF’s Facebook page: