Session Title
| 3.3. Democracy under Restrictive Environment (ANFREL) |
Key Organizer
| Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL) |
Date / Time
| 19 May 2021 / 10:00-12:00 KST (GMT+9) |
Modality / Language
| Virtual / English |
Objectives
| To raise international awareness on the shrinking democratic space in countries under restrictive environment |
Main Topics & Issues to be addressed
| The session will discuss the state of democracy, challenges and threats in the Asian countries that saw democratic regression, including Hong Kong, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar. |
Background
| Democracy in Asia is facing a hard time in recent years. The COVID-19 pandemic further tightened restraints on civil liberties and thus led to regression of democracy. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index finds more than half of the countries in the Asia and Australasia region recorded a fall in their democracy score. Hong Kong, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar were among those that saw the drop in 2020. |
Speakers
|
- Moderator
- Panelists
- Aileen Calverley, Hong Kong Watch
- Koul Panha, Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (COMFREL), Cambodia
- Mya Nandar Thin, Myanmar
- Yingcheep Atchanont, Internet Law Reform Dialogue (iLaw), Thailand
|