ASIA-PACIFIC REGIONAL OVERVIEW The human rights landscape of the Asia-Pacific region was mostly characterized by government failures. However, these frequently contrasted with an inspiring and growing movement of human rights defenders and activists. Many countries saw a shrinking space for civil society. Human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists and others found themselves the target of state repression – from an unprecedented crackdown on freedom of expression in China to sweeping intolerance of dissent in Cambodia and Thailand and enforced disappearances in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Impunity was widespread – breeding and sustaining violations including unlawful killings and torture, denying justice and reparation to millions, and fuelling crimes against humanity or war crimes in countries such as Myanmar and Afghanistan. The global refugee crisis worsened. Hundreds of thousands in the region were forced to flee their homes and faced uncertain, often violent, futures. Their numbers were swelled by the Myanmar military’s crimes against humanity in northern Rakhine State where the army burned entire Rohingya villages, killed adults and children, and raped women and girls. The mass violations forced more than 655,000 Rohingya to escape persecution by fleeing to Bangladesh. Those who remained continued to live under a systematically discriminatory system amounting to apartheid which severely restricted virtually every aspect of their lives and segregated them from the rest of society. ASEAN, chaired by the Philippines during 2017, marked its 50th anniversary. ASEAN governments and institutions remained silent over the massive violations in the Philippines, Myanmar and elsewhere in the region. Against this backdrop, growing calls to respect and protect human rights in Asia-Pacific, increasingly by young people, delivered some progress and hope. There were advances in policing in the Republic of Korea (South Korea), and positive court rulings on corporate accountability in South Korea; on marriage equality in Australia and Taiwan; and on the right to privacy in India. EAST ASIA The authorities in Japan, Mongolia and South Korea all failed to adequately protect human rights defenders. Human rights defenders were specifically targeted and persecuted in China. A notable shrinking of space for civil society was especially apparent in China, and was of increasing concern in Hong Kong and Japan. Human rights protection was diluted in Japan where parliament adopted an overly broad law targeting “terrorism” and other serious crimes, despite harsh criticism from civil society and academics. This law gave the authorities broad surveillance powers that could be misused to curtail human rights. Following a change of government in South Korea, the national police accepted recommendations for a change in the overall approach of policing in order to allow the full and free exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly. Also in South Korea, while hundreds of conscientious objectors were imprisoned, an increasing number of lower courts handed down decisions recognizing the right to conscientious objection, and court rulings acknowledged the responsibility of multinational corporations for work-related death or illness of employees. 36 Amnesty International Report 2017/18