Taiwan was on Wednesday named the only country in Asia with an open civic space for a fourth consecutive year, a report published by the human rights organization Civicus said.
The report, titled People Power Under Attack 2021, said that of 26 countries and territories in Asia, Taiwan remains the only one rated as “open” for the fourth time since 2018.
Taiwanese authorities are tolerant of criticism from civil society groups, which are able to form and operate freely without hindrance, Civicus said in a statement.
Photo: Tyrone Siu, Reuters
However, there are concerns about attempts to ban books that apparently glorify Beijing and to criminalize the display of the five-star flag of the People’s Republic of China, it added.
“Further, there is a need to revise the Assembly and Parade Act, which continues to disproportionately restrict people’s right to hold protests close to specified areas, such as the Executive Yuan, courts at all levels and foreign embassies and the need to obtain approval from the government,” Civicus said.
The annual report assesses civic space based on freedom of association, peaceful assembly and expression. Each country is placed in one of five categories: open, narrowed, obstructed, repressed or closed.
The report said that the most widespread civic space restraints in at least 21 Asian countries this year has been the use of restrictive laws to criminalize and prosecute human rights defenders. Other restraints include harassment, torture or ill-treatment and the detention of journalists, advocates and critics.
Four Asian countries — China, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam — are rated as closed, while 11 are ranked as repressed and seven as obstructed. Japan, Mongolia and South Korea are rated narrowed.
In China, where civic space is closed, the government has continued to detain scores of human rights defenders for broadly defined and vaguely worded offenses, while in Hong Kong, the newly-installed National Security Law has been weaponized to target journalists and democracy advocates, the Civicus report said.
A total of 197 countries and territories were surveyed, but only 39 were rated open, down from 42 last year, while 25 countries ranked closed, up from 23, most of which are located in the Middle East and Africa.
Forty-three countries were rated obstructed, and 49 countries ranked repressed.
The report said that 88.5 percent of the world’s population live in countries rated as closed, repressed or obstructed, while only 3.1 percent live in countries ranked as open.
Established in South Africa in 1993, Civicus is a global alliance of civil society organizations and advocates dedicated to bolstering citizen action and civil society worldwide.
Its Civicus Monitor research tool provides a comprehensive assessment of the conditions for civil society in 197 countries and territories.
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