Publications

ADN’s Democracy Overview 2025 — Signals from the Streets: Civic Resistance and Democratic Trajectories in Asia explores youth-led mobilisation across Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia, Mongolia, and the Philippines. Bringing together five grounded country cases, the report examines how movements emerge, how they sustain momentum over time, and how they engage with political systems that are often […]

In July 2024, protests erupted in Bangladesh, demanding a fair and non-discriminatory recruitment system for government jobs. These protests were primarily led by educated youth who had suffered from high unemployment for years due to a lack of decent job opportunities. In response, the government, led by Sheikh Hasina, launched a week-long crackdown that resulted […]

The year 2024 has been an eventful year for pro-democracy advocates in Asia. Democracy advocates observed the relentless cooptation of democratic processes and institutions, which has significantly contributed to the advancement of autocracy. Significant elections have taken place in various countries across Asia, and due to political uncertainty, pro-democracy advocates have expressed concerns on the […]

Indonesia is at a democratic crossroads. On March 20, 2025, the Prabowo Subianto administration passed a revision of the military law that significantly expands the military’s role in civilian affairs, marking a potential return to the authoritarian practices of the Suharto era. Civil society groups, legal scholars, and international observers warn that this shift undermines […]

The Hong Kong 47 case marks one of the most significant political prosecutions under the National Security Law (NSL). In January 2021, 47 pro-democracy figures were arrested for organizing an unofficial primary election, which authorities claimed was a plot to subvert state power. Since the 2019 protests, Hong Kong’s legal autonomy under “one country, two […]