Day 3 | 9 June

Addressing SLAPP against HRDs in South-East Asia: Challenges and lessons learned

9:00-10:30 ICT

Background

The use of Strategic Litigation against Public Participation (SLAPP) in South-East Asia against human rights defenders (HRDs), women HRDs, environmental HRDs, journalists and community rights workers is an escalating and pervasive trend in the region.

SLAPP cases filed by businesses to silence individuals from speaking out on human rights violations and issues of public concern have a chilling effect on the exercise of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and discourage public participation in policy and decision making. Environmental HRDs including land rights and community rights workers continue to face heightened risks, and a sizable number of those targeted are women.

While several countries in the region have adopted anti-SLAPP provisions and/or have adopted or are in the process of developing a National Action Plan on BHR, it is critical to reflect on the effectiveness of measures already in place to address and prevent SLAPPs.

The purpose of this event is to bring attention to key human rights issues related to SLAPPs in South-East Asia and to discuss legislative and policy developments, looking into challenges and lessons learned.

The 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 25th Anniversary of the United Nationas Declaration on Human Rights Defenders provide an important opportunity to discuss the critical role of HRDs, including in the context of advancing a meaningful implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The session also explores how the guidance provided by the Working Group[1] to the Human Rights Council in June 2021 can serve as a framework for individuals and organizations seeking to uphold the rights of human rights defenders.

[1] https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc4739add2-guiding-principles-business-and-human-rights-guidance

About the session

This session will include 4-5 speakers from a variety of settings to share views on how mHRDD might give shape to a new social and economic landscape in Asia. To better understand the full potential of HRDD, and any tradeoffs, speakers will address the most controversial questions being asked by trade unionists, political analysts, business leaders and environmentalists.

Objectives

The session seeks to: 

Identify and discuss the key human rights issues related to the use of SLAPPs in the region;
Discuss current and potential legislative and policy developments to address and prevent SLAPPs;
Share lessons learned and recommendations for future action to address the human rights challenges related to SLAPPs.

Co-organizers

The UN Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Regional Office for South-East Asia, and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).

Speakers

Katia Chirizzi

Ms. Katia Chirizzi is the Deputy Regional Representative of the UN OHCHR Regional Office for South-East Asia, which she joined in 2015. Prior to this, Ms. Chirizzi worked with OHCHR in several capacities, in Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and in Geneva. Before joining OHCHR, Ms. Chirizzi worked with the Organization for the Security and Co-operation in Europe in Kosovo, leading its Human Rights Division, and in Serbia.
Over more than two decades, Ms. Chirizzi focused her work on the protection and promotion of human rights both in conflict and post-conflict settings, including in the context of accountability, transitional justice, equality and non-discrimination, humanitarian action, land rights, business and human rights, climate change and environmental rights.

Pochoy Labog

Pochoy P. Labog is the Southeast Asia Researcher and Representative of the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. He is a human rights lawyer and advocate. Prior to joining the Centre, he was the Legal Services Coordinator of the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center or Friends of the Earth - Philippines where he led the litigation of cases aimed to advance the rights of indigenous peoples and upland, rural, poor communities. He was also a Program Officer of the Asia Foundation where he worked on judicial reform and human rights issues such extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearance, and torture. Pochoy holds a BA in Philosophy and a JD from the Ateneo De Manila University. He also has a LLM in International Legal Studies, with a Certificate on International Human Rights Law from the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington D.C.

Sanhawan Srisod

Sanhawan is a lawyer with extensive experience working in Thailand and managing ICJ’s Thailand and Mekong Programme. Her work covers a wide range of civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights issues, including addressing the use of SLAPP targeted at HRDs in the region. She has worked on humanitarian matters in Thailand's violence-plagued deep south and contributed to strengthening regional responses to human trafficking in ASEAN through the Australia-Asia Program to Combat Trafficking in Persons. Sanhawan has collaborated with organizations like UNHCR and Asylum Access to assist refugees and asylum seekers.
She holds an LL.M. in Public International Law from Leiden University, the Netherlands, and an M.A. in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.

Pichamon Yeophantong

Pichamon Yeophantong serves as the Chairperson and Member from Asia-Pacific States on the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights. She is also Associate Professor and Head of Research at the Centre for Future Defence and National Security, Deakin University. As a political scientist, Pichamon teaches and publishes field-based research on business and human rights, and the political economy of sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific

Angkhana Neelapaijit

Angkhana Neelapaijit is a women human rights defender. She was the Founder and former Chairwomen of Justice for Peace Foundation, an NGOs work on human rights and peace. Angkhana worked relentlessly to help victims of human rights abuses in Thailand especially in southernmost provinces where there is serious conflict and violence. The mission has made her one of Thailand's most prominent human rights defenders.Her dedication has won her many several international human rights awards, they include the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights and the honored by the European Parliament as “Women Human Rights Defender” on 2006, an honor “De Chevalier De L'Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur” from the French President for her outstanding work in the human rights protection on December 2010. And on the human rights month December 2014, Angkhana Neelapaijit was honored by the UN Women as “Women of Achievement” and The Ramon Magsaysay Award 2019 from The Ramon Magsaysay Foundation, The Republic of Philippines.Angkhana used to be the member of Constitutional Drafting Committee and Member of Constitutional Assembly in 2007, the Member of Ad Hoc Committee on Drafting Gender Equality Act 2015. Angkhana Neelapaijit is the Commissioner -National Human Rights Commissioner of Thailand (NHRCT) since November 2015 to July 2019.
Angkhana served as the Member of Ad Hoc Committee on Drafting Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearances Act, B.E. 2022 and on 1st May 2022 Angkhana was appointed to be the UN Expert and Member of UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) – Member from Asia and Pacific States.

Celine Lim

An indigenous woman from Baram, Sarawak. Celine is the Managing Director of SAVE Rivers. A Borneo-based CSO that advocates for indigenous people's rights and environmental issues.

Being an organisation that champions the rights of indigenous communities, SAVE Rivers began publishing articles highlighting the complaints and the lack of Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) from the affected communities on SAVE Rivers' website.
These publications resulted in an alleged defamation lawsuit in June 2021 by a Malaysian conglomerate, whose logging activities were the subject of the communities’ complaints.
In SAVE Rivers defence, this defamation lawsuit is viewed as Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (SLAPP) as it has restricted us in publicly advocating for the communities’ rights. SAVE Rivers is currently awaiting trial set for this upcoming September.

United Nations Responsible Business and Human Rights Forum, Asia-Pacific