Draconian security laws were used to target HRDs working on issues viewed as controversial or political by the authorities. In Malaysia, the Emergency Ordinance was used to arbitrarily detain HRDs associated with the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections. In Vietnam, charges of attempting to overthrow the Government under Article 79 of the Penal Code, which provides for capital punishment, were used against HRDs critical of the Government. Minor criticism or criticism on non-political issues was also met with the same severity. Prof. Pham Minh Hoang, who criticised the Government’s environmental policies, is currently serving a 17-month jail term and will be under house arrest for another three years after his release.

Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Malaysia and Thailand were in the process of passing new laws which would further hinder the work of HRDs. In Cambodia, a draft Law on Associations and NGOs (LANGO) was being reviewed by the Council of Ministers. The text has drawn widespread criticism as it provides for mandatory registration and criminalises unregistered groups. It requires NGOs and community-based organisations to provide regular financial reports to the authorities; organisations that fail to do so would be considered illegal. Bangladesh was also in the process of drafting an NGO bill which may be used to target critical human rights organisations. Under the current set-up, NGOs receiving funding from abroad have to obtain prior approval from the government controlled NGO Affairs Bureau.

Bloggers and media activists using the internet to raise human rights awareness or expose abuses were harassed, arrested and under heavy surveillance in Burma, China, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Websites of human rights organisations were blocked or hacked. Paulus Le Van Son, a prominent Vietnamese blogger, was arrested and held without access to his family and lawyer since September for writing about human rights.

Ongoing armed conflicts in Afghanistan, Burma, India, Pakistan, Southern Thailand, and the Philippines continued to affect the safety of human rights defenders. HRDs working to expose abuses by security forces and militant groups found themselves vulnerable to attacks by both sides in the conflict. In these countries, HRDs documenting extra-judicial killings and torture were labelled as agents of the armed opposition. In the Philippines, the human rights groups Linundigan and Community-based Health Service in Northern Mindanao had to evacuate their staff due to security concerns after they were branded by the authorities as sympathisers of the communist party. In post conflict Sri Lanka, HRDs continued to be branded and vilified as supporters of the currently inactive Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Sunanda Deshapriya and his family received death threats after participating in a UN Human Rights Council side event on Sri Lanka. He was the victim of a smear campaign by government officials and the state-run media that branded him as an LTTE supporter.

Killing of trade unionists and HRDs working on community rights, indigenous peoples, and corruption were reported in India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Thailand. In August, Right to Information campaigner Shehla Masood was shot dead in India for demanding an end to corruption. Thongnak Sawekjinda, a local community leader in Thailand was gunned down in August for his work on coal mining factories. In October, Petrus W. Ajamiseba and Leo Wangdegau, members of the All Indonesia Labour Union were shot dead by Papua police for leading a demonstration demanding better working conditions. In the same month, Father Fausto Tentorio was murdered in the Philippines after advocating for the local government to respect community rights.

No progress was recorded into the investigations on killings that occurred in previous years. The persons behind the murder of labour rights activist Chea Vichea in Cambodia and human rights defender Munir Thalib in Indonesia remain unpunished. The investigation regarding the enforced disappearance of Thai human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit has equally stalled, showing a lack of political will to shed light on his disappearance and those responsible.

LGBTI rights defenders continued to face harassment and strong opposition to their work. In November 2011, Seksualiti Merdeka, a coalition of LGBTI defenders in Malaysia, was forced to cancel their sexuality rights festival after the police issued a ban on their event.

HRDs in Asia were still looking forward to the prospect of having a credible regional human rights mechanism in their sub- regions. The ASEAN Inter-governmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), set up in October 2009, remained non-operational as the initial two years were spent on the drafting of the ASEAN Declaration on Human Rights. Despite disappointment at the lack of progress, many HRDs remain engaged and hopeful that the AICHR may evolve into a fully fledged mechanism with both promotion and protection mandates. Positively, several governments in South Asia expressed interest in the development of a similar mechanism.