Human Rights Watch sees some encouraging signs in Asia in 2024
Voice of America
FILE - The Students Against Discrimination group holds a rally in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Dec. 31, 2024, demanding proclamation of the July Revolution and to mark the student-led uprising five months ago that resulted in the ouster of longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. A motorcade carrying South Korea's impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, leaves for the Seoul Detention Center at the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials following his arrest, in Gwacheon, South Korea, on Jan. 15, 2025. (Yonhap via Reuters) FILE - Correctional officers escort publisher Jimmy Lai to a prison van before a court appearance in Hong Kong on Dec. 12, 2020.
In an uneven year for democracy and rights globally, the Asia-Pacific region saw some encouraging signs, Human Rights Watch says in its World Report 2025, released today.
FILE - A Cypriot military police officer stands guards next of the docked U.S ship carrying Gaza aid, at the port of Larnaca, Cyprus, June 26, 2024.
Relatives and friends of people killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza react to the ceasefire announcement as they take part in a demonstration in Tel Aviv, Israel, Jan. 15, 2025. Family and relatives mourn over the body of Palestinian journalist Ahmed Al-Shayah, covered with a press vest, after he was killed during an Israeli strike the previous night in Khan Yunis, at Nasser Hospital, in the southern Gaza Strip, on January 16, 2025.
FILE - A volunteer serves food to people in need along a street in Karachi, Pakistan, on Jan. 10, 2022. Pakistan announced on Jan. 15, 2025, that the World Bank has agreed to lend $20 billion to the cash-strapped nation over 10 years.
Women check their phones at a bus stop displaying portraits of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas militants during their Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel, in Jerusalem, Jan. 15, 2025.
Ukrainian Lt. Col. Ihor Benzeruk, who survived explosions at the Russian-controlled Olenivka prison two years ago, is pictured in Lyman, Ukraine, July 11, 2024. Though he survived, "this day remains as the day my comrades were executed," he said.
FILE - A loitering munition drone is displayed at National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology in Taichung City, Taiwan, March 14, 2023.
FILE - The National Security Council's Michael Carpenter is seen on White House grounds in Washington, Dec. 18, 2024. (VOA Ukrainian)
FILE - A worker performs a quality check at Chinese vaccine maker Sinovac Biotech in Beijing on Sept. 24, 2020. The United States on Jan. 15, 2025, announced new export controls on some biotechnology equipment, saying China could put it to military use.
U.S. dollar currency, recovered from three Chinese citizens arrested in possession of gold bars and $400,000, is displayed inside the courtroom in Bukavu, Congo, Jan. 4, 2025. The men were sentenced to seven years in prison on Jan. 14, 2025.
FILE - French President Emmanuel Macron visits the Kavani district in Mamoudzou on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte on Dec. 19, 2024, following Cyclone Chido's passage over the archipelago.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, right, welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after the two countries reached an agreement on exhuming Polish victims of WWII-era massacres by Ukrainian nationalists, in Warsaw, Poland, Jan. 15, 2025.
FILE - India's Defense Minister Rajnath Singh arrives for an ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting - Plus in Jakarta, Nov. 16, 2023. India has sought to counter China as Beijing grows its influence in India's neighborhood through investments and development projects.
People take shelter inside a metro station during a Russian military strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine Jan. 15, 2025.
A boy looks at the bodies of Palestinians killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip as they are brought for burial at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Jan. 15, 2025. Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, Jan. 15, 2025.
Indonesian Minister of Information and Digital Affairs Meutya Hafid, right, at an elementary school in Depok, West Java, Indonesia, Jan. 6, 2025. She said on Jan. 15, 2024, that the government planned to issue a regulation to set a minimum age for social media users.
A miner is transported on a stretcher by rescue workers after he was rescued from below ground in an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, Jan. 14, 2025. President of the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa Mametlwe Sebei, center, chants slogans while joining community members and workers in a protest during the rescue operation to retrieve illegal miners from an abandoned gold mine in South Africa on Jan. 14, 2024. Members of the South African police, patrol as they guard the mine shaft where rescue operations are ongoing as attempts are made to rescue illegal miners who have been underground for months in Stilfontein, South Africa, Jan. 14, 2025. Illegal miners rescued from an abandoned gold mine line up as rescuers and South African Police Service officers record their details and provide assistance in Stilfontein on Jan. 14, 2025.
FILE - President Joe Biden walks across the stage to sign an executive order about artificial intelligence at the White House, Oct. 30, 2023. On Jan. 14, 2025, Biden signed another executive order to boos development of AI infrastructure.
FILE - This picture taken by Taiwan’s Coast Guard on Jan. 3, 2025 shows the Cameroon-flagged "Shunxing 39" cargo ship sailing at sea.