Strengthening youth engagement in politics, governance, and civil society requires a concrete action plan spanning short-, mid-, and long-term goals. This was the central message of the “Asia Global Democracy Coalition Regional Forum 2025: Youths, Democracy & Electoral Legitimacy in Asia”, co-hosted by Asia Centre and the Global Democracy Coalition. Held on 4 April 2025 in Bangkok, Thailand, the hybrid forum brought together 33 on-site participants and 62 online attendees, aged 18 to 65, from across Asia representing students, academics, CSOs, diplomatic representatives and research institutes.Sanjay Gathia, Programme Manager at Asia Centre, opened the event by reflecting on key insights…

On 18th March 2025, during the 8th Yushan Forum, Asia Centre signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation (TAEF) in Taipei, Taiwan.The signatories were, for the Asia Centre, its Regional Director, Dr. James Gomez and for the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation, its Chairman, Dr. Michael Hsiao Hsin-Huang. During the MoU signing, Prof Michael Hsiao announced that the Asia Centre, in collaboration with TAEF and the Advanced Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences at National Chung Hsing University are jointly planning a conference entitled “The Evolving Crisis of Democracy in Asia: Challenges and Resolutions”. The planned conference…

RecruitmentFrom 2016 to January 2025, Asia Centre’s Internship Programme has hosted 56 interns, with a 1:2 male to female ratio for a total of 187 months. The interns were either undergraduates or postgraduates enrolled at universities in Australia, East Africa, Europe, Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Asia, Southern Africa, and North America.There are three locations that the Asia Centre offers for internships: Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Johor Bahru (Malaysia), and Bangkok (Thailand). Interns will be placed in various locations according to their skills and the project needs of the Centre.Interns applying to Asia Centre begin the process by filling in the…

On 10 December 2024, the Asia Centre hosted the online launch of its latest report, Digital Security for High-Risk Users in the Asia-Pacific: Needs Assessment Report. The event attracted about 50 participants and featured insights from experts in digital security, citizen participation, and technology.Dr James Gomez, Regional Director of the Asia Centre, delivered the opening remarks, highlighting the crucial importance of digital security for rights defenders. He also addressed the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in human rights advocacy, noting its potential to enhance the digital knowledge and operations of civil society organisations (CSOs). To this end, he announced the…

Providing a platform for 28 youth representatives to share their insights and challenges surrounding young people’s representation in democratic systems across the Asia-Pacific region was the key achievement of the Asia Centre-led regional dialogue “Youth Voices, Strong Choices: Political Participation in the Asia-Pacific”. Co-convened with the Global Democracy Coalition and Club de Madrid on 26 November 2024, the event brought together two youth networks:  speakers from the Oxfam Young Leaders Fellowship Programme and the Women and Youth in Democracy Initiative (WYDE) Network of Young Decision-makers, who joined in a hybrid manner. Additionally, representatives from IGOs, INGOs, and CSOs based in Thailand…

The JUSTYouth Programme, an initiative designed by Asia Centre with support from the ASEAN Foundation in partnership with Maybank Foundation, brought together nine passionate young volunteers from across Southeast Asia between July and October 2024. These volunteers collaborated with community-based organisations in Chiang Mai, Thailand, addressing critical social issues such as gender inequality in education and child rights. The programme provides an experiential learning platform that empowers youth to engage in social volunteerism, build leadership skills, and foster cross-cultural collaboration. In the programme’s fourth cohort, nine volunteers from nine ASEAN countries each contributed to local development and social change in…

Spanning a day and a half, the End-of-Programme Meeting for the “Digital Rights Programme for Civil Society Organisations” was held from 25 to 26 October 2024 in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. It marked the culmination of a year-long initiative focused on enhancing the understanding and advocacy of digital rights among Civil Society Organisations (CSO)s. The meeting brought together over 60 participants and included CSO representatives from European Values Center for Security Policy, Japan NGO Center for International Cooperation (JANIC), Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD), Hashtag Generation, Digital Rights Nepal, Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network(SAFEnet), Cambodian Centre for Independent Media…

On 17 October 2024, Dr Marc Pinol Rovira, Research Manager at the Asia Centre, and Somaly Kum, Research Associate at the Asia Centre, participated in the Phnom Penh Internet Forum (PPIF), held in Phnom Penh spanning from 17-18 October 2024. The forum sought to address digitalisation in Cambodia, the regulatory frameworks on cybercrime and data protection, and opportunities for Cambodia in the digital world. More than 100 participants joined the event with representatives from government agencies like the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Ministry of Social Affairs Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation, INGOs, civil society organisations, the media sector,…

Structural challenges to civic spaces caused by laws, policies and other hindrances, particularly the critical role of media in fostering information integrity, must be examined to ensure civic spaces in Asia remain well-functioning. Towards that end, the civil society sector must build and sustain a cross-sector coalition to support one another. This was the main message across the two panel discussions hosted by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) during Asia Centre’s 9th Annual International Conference, held in Bangkok from 21 to 23 August 2024 under the theme “Shrinking Civic Space in Asia: Stories of Resistance and Pushback.”  In her opening…