2015 Asia-Pacific Workshops

This workshop will address the impact of the still increasing U.S. militarization in the Asia-Pacific region, and in particular the oppressions and systems of trafficking inherent in the presence of the more than 200 U.S. foreign military bases and installations in Asia and the Pacific.

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Poverty is among several factors contributing to the commercial exploitation of people for both cheap labor and the sex/tourism industry in Southeast Asia. This workshop explores the factors contributing to trafficking and migration in the region, the challenges facing migrant workers and trafficking victims, and initiatives to oppose forced migration and human trafficking.

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Other human rights violations in the Philippines have been well documented, including enforced disappearances, illegal detention, and torture. In its World Report 2015 Human Rights Watch determined that attacks by state forces against human rights activists, community leaders, indigenous peoples and others are continuing with impunity. This workshop will focus on preparations for an International People’s Tribunal (IPT) planned for summer 2015, which will help raise national and international public visibility of the ongoing violation of people’s rights in the Philippines, exercise moral suasion and help generate further political pressure on the governments of the Philippines and the US to end impunity.

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