Civil Society Empowerment must be at the Centre of COVID-19 Recovery Efforts
On 9 December 2020, Asia Centre released its second baseline study “COVID-19 and Democracy in Southeast Asia: Building Resilience, Fighting Authoritarianism”. This report examines the state of democracy and human rights in the region, from 1 January 2020 to 30 November 2020, and the accelerated regression thereof due to COVID-19. The report was presented by Dr. James Gomez, Regional Director of Asia Centre. Following the unveiling, key themes of the report were discussed by Dr. Rebecca (Bec) Strating, Executive Director, La Trobe Asia, La Trobe University; Dr. Kristina Kironska, Researcher, Palacky University of Olomouc; Celito Arlegue, Executive Director, Council of Asian…