Becoming an advocate: Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN) and the evolution of local NGOs in Asia

Abstract

Asia has been a region of origin, transit and destination for refugees; however, it has remained without a concrete regional mechanism to protect them. During the twentieth century, the lack of legal and political institutions led to the isolation and marginalisation of refugee non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Asia, preventing them from providing the necessary refugee protection. However, since the creation of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN), the role of NGOs in refugee protection has expanded rapidly in Asia. This research focuses on responding to the following questions. What factor(s) contributed to the emergence of Asian refugee NGOs as prominent advocates in refugee protection? How did local NGOs overcome structural obstacles to participate in national, regional and global advocacy? I argue that the theories of cognitive liberation, contentious politics and increased autonomy can help to explain how the APRRN, as a transnational network organisation, empowered NGOs, specifically in the Global South, to become active advocates. The APRRN facilitates the integration of the information, experience and resources that have been developed in Asian civil society, thus supporting local NGOs to effectively mobilise and distribute resources to overcome the structural asymmetry of power relationships in the global governance of refugee protection.

Keywords:

• Refugees
• Asian civil society
• APRRN
• cognitive liberation
• contentious politics
• autonomy

Acknowledgements

The author thanks the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and sincere advice.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

Some parts of this research were supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea under Grant NRF-2018S1A3A2075117.

Notes on contributors

Won Geun Choi

Won Geun Choi is Research Professor at the Center for International Development Cooperation, Kyung Hee University. He earned his PhD from the Department of Political Science at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa in 2020. His research interests cover the international refugee regime, human rights, the asylum–development nexus and transnational social movements. He was a founding member of NANCEN (Refugee Rights Center) in South Korea and served the organisation from 2009 to 2012. He has also been a member of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN) since 2009.