2023 TWxSEA Civil Society Week 台灣與東南亞公民社會週

【Free event on 24 August】The Crisis of the Closing of Civic Space? The situation in Malaysia and the Philippines

The Situation of Shrinking Civic Space in Malaysia and the Philippines

Given the expansion of authoritarianism, the backslide of liberal democracy and the common predicament derived from neoliberalism, activists and organisations are encountering increasing threats and challenges when taking actions to tackle social, economic and political inequality.

The shrinking of civic space is one of the most pressing challenges that activists and organisations from Malaysia and the Philippines are faced with. Therefore, we have invited two distinguished speakers for this event, who will share with us the current situation people are confronting in their respective countries.

Wong Yan Ke is a program and campaign coordinator at Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM), handling cases related to police misconduct and detentions without trial. He is also the coordinator of CSO Platform for Reform's Police Accountability sub-cluster, and is coordinating campaigns for freedom of expression, freedom of assembly/association and ant-itorture and elimination of custodial deaths. Besides monitoring cases and initiating campaigns, he is currently working on a socioeconomic research on detention without trials' detainees and their family members. Wong Yan Ke is also a participants in ACFA's "Exploring Taiwan's Roles Amid The Crises of Closing Civic Space in the Southeast Asia" research and one of the panelists on ACFA's "Taiwan & Southeast Asia Civil Society Week" report launch forum.

Catherine Lopez is a Philippine-based lawyer working at IDEALS (The Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services), a human rights NGO providing legal services to vulnerable, disempowered and marginalized groups. She is the current coordinator for the organization’s research and policy development team as well as a legal officer handling human rights violation cases. The themes of the research initiatives cover the Philippine administration’s war on drugs, transitional justice, armed conflict in the Bangsamoro region, Philippine pandemic policies, and prison reforms among others. Catherine Lopez is also one of the panelists on ACFA's "Taiwan & Southeast Asia Civil Society Week" report launch forum.