SHAPE-SEA, in partnership with Global Campus of Human Rights Asia Pacific, invites you to the Special Panel on “Southeast Asia, Disrupted: Examining the Impacts of the Securitization of Covid-19.” This panel is in conjunction with the International Conference on New Research on International Development, Human Rights and International Relations at a Time of Disruption (29-30 July 2020).
To join, register here: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAkcOGgqjgpG9cnQ25-Rf-z8gLKsUULiXl-
Covid-19 exposes cracks not just in public health governance, but also in the treatment of vulnerable individuals and groups. In Southeast Asia, responses to the pandemic contain all the critical elements of securitization. What started with lockdowns, travel bans, border closures eventually led to police surveillance, arbitrary detention, control of access to information, and further shrinking of spaces for dissent and activism.Laws and policies granting emergency powers passed gave various heads of state the power to enforce peace, and security measures to address economic recession. These have aggravated the deterioration of democratic institutions and values, as well as, economic, social and gender injustices across the region. This panel will examine the impacts of the pandemic on peoples living in the margins, and will explore potential opportunities for and challenges to the protection of human rights and freedoms in the future.
