COVID-19 Updates

As the novel coronavirus continues to spread across the world, close to four billion people in over 90 countries are under mandatory lockdowns. The virus has in its wake taken both tens of thousands of lives and millions of livelihoods. Countries continue to grapple with the challenges of testing, quarantines and lack of medical facilities and equipment. It is also evident that global trade and national economies will take a much worse battering than expected. Focus created this special section of the website to capture some of the impacts of COVID-19 in Asia

Latest Articles/Statements

COVID-19 Impacts on Women’s Economy, Women’s Rights and Livelihood in Thailand

In 2020, Thailand was the first country in the world to detect COVID-19 transmission outside China. Since then, the Government has aggressively exercised executive and judicial measures, especially on the infinite extension of COVID-19 state of emergency decree, to...

India’s women COVID warriors continue struggle for justice

by Ranjini Basu | Aug 26, 2020

By Ranjini Basu Before the COVID pandemic struck India, its Ministry of Health, stated that the country had more than a million strong army of women Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA). The ASHAs are foot soldiers of the public health machinery in the country,...

India’s women fishworkers marginalized under COVID-19 lockdown

by Ayantika Das | Aug 26, 2020

The following is an interview with Jesu Rethinam Christy, an executive committee member of the National Fishworkers Forum in India. By Ayantika Das According to the Fisheries Statistics of India 2018, a total number of 16,096,975 family members are engaged in fishing...

To dream the impossible dream: Youth-led uprisings in Thailand

by Supatsak Pobsuk | Aug 26, 2020

By Supatsak Pobsuk “Down with dictatorship, long live democracy.” – Protest chant On August 16, 2020, more than 10,000 protesters mobilized at Bangkok’s Democracy Monument to demand political reforms. An outburst of frustration toward the failed administration of...

Is the United States a failing state?

by Focus on the Global South Ally/Friend/Partner | Aug 26, 2020

By Richard Falk To ask whether the United States, the world’s dominant military power, is ‘a failing state’ should cause worldwide anxiety. Such a state, analogous to a wounded animal, is a global menace of unprecedented proportions in the nuclear age. Its political...

Why the Duterte regime could fall victim to COVID-19

by Walden Bello | Aug 26, 2020

By Walden Bello People expected a message of hope from his State of the Nation Address, but the Philippine president instead self-destructed against the background of a public health disaster, a collapsing economy, and a generational rebellion. In his fifth State of...

The Philippines’ Response to COVID-19: Limits of State Capacity

by Focus on the Global South Ally/Friend/Partner | Jul 6, 2020

In an article for the Covid-19 Chronicles of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) of Kyoto University, Ayame Suzuki, Professor of the Facutlty of Law of Doshisha University and Visiting Professor of De La Salle University, suggests that the failure of the...

Overcoming the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons from the “dulet”

by Focus on the Global South Ally/Friend/Partner | Jul 6, 2020

by Alim "Kim" Bandara* 2020 June 21 The Covid-19 pandemic came to a surprise to the global community, critically affecting even countries with most modern and advanced medical technologies and health care systems. There are speculations that it was a man made...

Peace and Courage in the Time of COVID-19

by Galileo de Guzman Castillo | Jul 6, 2020

Solidarity Message from the Global South to the 2020 Japan Peace March[i] By Galileo de Guzman Castillo[ii] 2020 June 5 It is a great honour and privilege to be taking part in the Heiwa Koshin, the International Youth Relay, and the Virtual Peace March this year...

The Racial and Genocidal Underpinnings of the American Way of War

by Walden Bello | Jul 6, 2020

by Walden Bello* The US military command’s pushback against President Donald Trump’s attempt to use the military against people demanding racial justice has received a lot of good press. But let’s not overdo the praise. For most of their existence, the Armed Forces...

What next for the Anti –CAA protests in India?

by Mansi Sharma | Jul 6, 2020

28 June 2020 Interview with Professor Manisha Sethi (NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, India) by Mansi Sharma* (With the adoption of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on 12 December, 2019, a faith based criteria for Indian citizenship was introduced for the first...