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South Asia State of Minorities Report 2020

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cover SAR 202011.pdf 1 30/10/20 19:58:40 A major tenet of democracy is protec�ng civil society while also encouraging its vibrancy. It is the responsibility of states to ensure that ci�zens can freely exercise their fundamental rights of speech, assembly and associa�on without fear, and guarantee access to legal remedy if and when these rights are violated. The world at of MinoritiesSouth State Report Asia 2020 large is, however, experiencing a constric�on of civic space and nowhere is this more apparent than in South Asia. South Asia State of Minorities Report 2020: Minorities and Shrinking Civic Space Minorities and Shrinking Spaces Civil highlights how civil society across the region has been naviga�ng the terrain of state prac�ces, especially with regard to advocacy of minority rights. While the regression of civic space affects society at large, the dynamics and impacts of restric�ons tend to be par�cularly severe, and take place with greater frequency, for minori�es and those who raise a voice for their rights. This volume presents chapters from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, repor�ng on the state of civic space within their respec�ve territories. This volume is planned as a tool for advocacy. It is hoped that these annual reports on outcomes for minori�es and the quality of state provisioning will spur public C debate in the region and create the condi�ons for state par�es, and regional and interna�onal mechanisms to give serious considera�on to issues of minori�es. The M purpose of the ini�a�ve is to promote equal ci�zenship and equal rights for all Y ci�zens, a central challenge of the ‘deepening democracy’ agenda in the region, and CM to highlight the alarmingly narrow civic space for minori�es, including human rights MY defenders, journalists and ac�vists. CY This publica�on is the fourth in the series, following South Asia State of Minorities Report 2018: Exploring the Roots; South Asia State of Minorities Report 2016: CMY Mapping the Terrain; and South Asia State of Minorities Report 2019: Refugees, K Migrants and the Stateless. The report is put together by the South Asia Collec�ve, consis�ng of organisa�ons and human rights ac�vists that dream of a just, caring and peaceful South Asia by documen�ng the condi�on of the region’s minori�es— religious, linguis�c, ethnic, caste, and gender, among others—hoping it will contribute to be�er outcomes for South Asia’s many marginalised groups. Co-funded by the European Union THE SOUTH ASIA COLLECTIVE South Asia State of Minorities Report 2020 South Asia State of Minorities Report 2020 Minorities and Shrinking Civic Space THE SOUTH ASIA COLLEctIVE South Asia State of Minorities Report 2020 Minorities and Shrinking Civic Space Edited by a team at Social Science Baha, Kathmandu, consisting of Deepak Thapa, Ritika Singh and Shambhawi Poudel with Khem Shreesh and Sudeshna Thapa. Cover design and graphics by Promina Shrestha and Animesh Maharjan. Text pages design and layout by Chiran Ghimire. This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad). Its contents are the sole responsibility of the South Asia Collective and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or Norad. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercialShareAlike 4.0 International License. Provided they acknowledge the source, users of this content are allowed to remix, tweak, build upon and share for noncommercial purposes under the same original license terms. November 2020 South Asia Collective Email: [email protected] Web: thesouthasiacollective.org Facebook: facebook.com/thesouthasiacollective Contents Executive Summary vii Foreword xv Acknowledgements xix Note on the South Asia Collective xxiii Note on Contributors xxv Abbreviations and Acronyms xxxi Introduction: South Asia, Constrained xxxv Chapter 1 Shrinking Civic Spaces for Human Rights Defenders in Afghanistan 1 Chapter 2 Bangladesh: Civic Space and Minority Rights 29 Chapter 3 Civic Space and Religious Minorities in Bhutan 53 Chapter 4 Closing Civic Space in India: Targeting Minorities Amid Democratic Backsliding 72 Chapter 5 Civic Space in Nepal 126 Chapter 6 Closing Civic Space in Pakistan 164 Chapter 7 Sri Lanka: Minority Rights within Shrinking Civic Space 196 Chapter 8 State of South Asian Minorities 2020 230 Appendices Commentaries 259 Assessment of Civic Space in South Asia (online survey) 267 Executive Summary Across South Asia, civil society is being increasingly constrained. It is either too nascent, due to late democratic development, or where it has had a little history of growth and nurturing, is facing strong challenges. Anti-democratic authoritarian tendencies and greater securitisation of laws and practices appears to be the main drivers of this narrowing trend, with the mid-2010s appearing to be the period of convergence for this constriction in many of the countries. Democracy champions, human rights defenders (HRDs), and activists have been in the crosshairs of authorities everywhere for challenging state actions and speaking out. A great deal of the narrowing of space for civil society concerns minorities, which is also due to the hardening of majoritarianism across the region. This report focuses on the status of civic space in South Asia, specifically for minorities. A comprehensive and inclusive definition of civic space includes social movements, national and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs), civil society organisations (CSOs), the media, academics, and activists, among others. A functional civic space depends on the rights i) to associate, ii) assemble peacefully, and iii) freely express views and opinions. Hence, each chapter of the report seeks to explore the status of these three ‘basic freedoms’ in several ways. The chapters relied on desk research with a review of published materials on civic space for minorities in the respective countries. The chapters also include assessments of laws and policies to regulate civic space as well as the bills proposed over the years to capture the general mood of the government over time vis-à- vis civic space and civil society. Some primary data was collected through an online expert survey for Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and Nepal to assess the public perception on civic space there. While a similar survey was undertaken in all the countries, the pandemic as well as other factors led to a very low number of vii South Asia State of Minorities Report 2020 respondents, making the analysis moot. The pandemic also resulted in the research for individual chapters being mostly confined to materials available online. Key Findings The constitutional rights of freedom of expression, association, and assembly in all the countries—Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka—have been increasingly violated by superseding legislation introduced by the respective governments within the last decade or so. One prominent example is the increased regulation of registration of CSO/NGOs. As a consequence, civic space is becoming more restrictive over time, creating a hostile environment for CSOs/NGOs, progressive media entities and human rights defenders. i. Freedom of Expression: The region has seen a curtailment of freedom of expression. Some examples include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Act 2007 being deployed to curb freedom of expression and silence critics in Sri Lanka rather than arrest persons inciting ethnic/religious tensions. In Afghanistan, the Mass Media Law 2009 was meant to consolidate freedom of expression but instead contains clauses that require the upholding of Islam, which has been steadily weaponised by the government in recent years. Freedom of expression is also affected in Bangladesh, particularly in light of Digital Security Act 2018 under which, posting false, provocative, indecent or sensitive information on websites or any electronic platforms that is considered defamatory or likely to disrupt the country’s law and order situation, or harm religious sentiments, is a punishable offence. In Bhutan, under the National Security Act 1992, speech that creates or attempts to create ‘hatred and disaffection among the people’ or ‘misunderstanding or hostility between the government and people’ can be punished with imprisonment. In India, there have been several instances of censorship of TV news channels, with channels that have broadcast views viii Executive Summary critical of the government being banned. In Nepal, there has been an amendment proposed to the Media Council Bill about journalists requiring a licence to work while the Criminal Code of 2018 can punish journalists for publishing information deemed ‘confidential’. ii. Freedom of Association: The countries are wielding the power to deny registration or renewal of registration of CSOs/NGOs to attempt to regulate them. In Bhutan, CSOs are reluctant to engage in advocacy efforts for fear of having their registration certificates revoked. India’s civil society actors—its human rights lawyers, activists, protesters, academics, journalists, liberal intelligentsia—in fact, all those who have spoken up against government excesses and majoritarianism, have increasingly been under attack. Alongside, the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, which regulates foreign donations to entities in India, has been further weaponised against progressive and minority NGOs. In Bangladesh,
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