REPRESSIVE MEASURES AS WELL AS ROOM FOR OPTIMISM IN EAST ASIA The human rights year in the East Asia region was marked by troubling and repressive measures such as shrinking space for civil society, renewed crackdowns on lawyers and other human rights defenders, and pessimism regarding the death penalty. By contrast, however, activism against sexual harassment and positive signs around recognition of same-sex relationships in the region gave some cause for optimism as we move into 2019. A woman takes her children through a police checkpoint at a night food market near the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, 25 June 2017. Š Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images.
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