DISCRIMINATION Australia’s justice system continued to fail Indigenous people, especially children – with high rates of incarceration and reports of abuse and deaths in custody. Ill-treatment of Indigenous children in the Northern Territory, including tear gassing, choking, restraints and solitary confinement, was exposed by leaked footage. LGBTI people suffered discrimination in Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Singapore. Reports of hate speech against members of Australia’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and questioning (LGBTIQ) community increased, despite newly introduced penalties. In Indonesia’s Aceh province two men were publicly caned 83 times each for consensual same-sex sexual activity. Numerous women defending human rights faced harassment, threats, imprisonment and violence. Papua New Guinea remained one of the world’s most dangerous countries to be a woman, with increased reports of violence against women or girls, sometimes following sorcery accusations. There were convictions under Indonesia’s blasphemy laws of people belonging to minority religious communities who had been peacefully practising their beliefs. The Australian Parliament passed legislation to create marriage equality in December. The postal survey process chosen by the government failed to acknowledge that marriage equality is a human right and generated divisive and damaging public debate. DEATH PENALTY At least four executions took place in Malaysia. In Singapore execution by hanging continued to be carried out for murder and drug trafficking; among those executed was Malaysian national Prabagaran Srivijayan whose execution was carried out despite an appeal pending in Malaysia. ARMED CONFLICT Although receiving less international attention than the situation in Rakhine State, there were similar patterns of violations by Myanmar’s military in northern Myanmar. War crimes and human rights violations were committed against civilians in Kachin and northern Shan States, including extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, torture, indiscriminate shelling, forced labour, and restrictions on humanitarian access. Ethnic armed groups committed abuses including abductions and forced recruitment. Both the army and armed groups used landmine-like weapons that harmed civilians. In the Philippines, a five-month battle in Marawi between the military and an alliance of militants aligned with the armed group calling itself Islamic State (IS), caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians, dozens of civilian deaths, and widespread destruction of homes and infrastructure. The militants targeted Christian civilians for extrajudicial killings and mass hostage-taking, and the armed forces detained and ill-treated fleeing civilians. CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY Communities living close to the giant Letpadaung copper mine in Myanmar continued to call for a halt to its operations. Thousands of families living near the mine were at risk of being forcibly evicted from their homes or farmland, and the authorities used repressive laws to harass activists and villagers. In Indonesia there was labour exploitation on plantations owned by suppliers and subsidiaries of Wilmar International, the world’s largest palm oil trader. Abuses included women being forced to work long hours under threat of having their already meagre pay cut, children as 44 Amnesty International Report 2017/18