Asia Pacific Research Network - APRN

07/04/2026

An International Solidarity Mission (ISM) in 2025 documented the lived realities of the Mangyan-Iraya in Occidental Mindoro, exposing how militarization and corporate expansion operate together to open lands to extraction while suppressing resistance.

Since then, aerial bombardment, forced evacuations, and restricted humanitarian access have intensified. Militarization continues to function as a mechanism to secure corporate interests.

The March 29 arrest and continued detention of Ceeka Garzon, a cultural worker, underscores how repression also targets those engaged in cultural work and community solidarity through trumped-up charges.

This reflects a broader pattern across the Philippines and the Asia Pacific, where development is enforced through militarization at the expense of Indigenous communities.

31/03/2026

The world is entering a period of intensified crisis marked by escalating wars, deepening economic instability, and shifting global power.

These developments are not isolated. They are interconnected expressions of a broader system under strain, with real and immediate consequences for the people, particularly across the Asia Pacific.

This article examines the underlying conditions driving these conflicts, the evolving nature of war, and the urgent need for collective understanding, solidarity, and action.

Read the full article: https://www.aprnet.org/the-world-in-crisis-implications-and-prospects-for-the-people/

08/03/2026

On International Working Women’s Day, the Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN) stands in solidarity with working women across the Asia Pacific whose labor sustains families, communities, and economies.

Despite their immense contributions, women continue to face deep structural inequalities in work and economic participation. Women globally are still paid around 20 percent less than men, and women perform over 16 billion hours of unpaid care work every day worldwide. Women also spend more than 2.5 times as many hours on unpaid care and domestic work as men, limiting their opportunities to participate fully in paid employment, leadership, and decision making. (UN Women, 2024)

Across the Asia Pacific, many women remain concentrated in informal, low paid, and precarious sectors such as agriculture, domestic work, services, and global supply chains where labor protections are often weakest.

Yet working women across the region continue to organize, lead movements, defend communities, and advance struggles for labor rights, social justice, and people centered development.

On this International Working Women’s Day, APRN calls on governments and institutions to strengthen labor protections, ensure equal pay, invest in public care systems, and protect the rights of women workers across all sectors.

A just and equitable future depends on recognizing the rights, leadership, and contributions of working women.

10/02/2026

Aaron Ceradoy of the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants and Chairperson of the Asia Pacific Research Network examined the structural conditions shaping the Asia-Pacific region that situated APRN’s research conference within a wider context and framework.

The paper analyzes widening inequality, labor precarity, unemployment, and the informalization of work, alongside the concentration of wealth and the expansion of trade blocs, debt-driven development, and international financial institutions.

It forms part of the conference’s broader research discussions on conditions in the Asia-Pacific region, situated within APRN’s ongoing work on imperialism, development, labor, and people’s movements. The inclusion of this paper contributes to collective analysis and exchange among researchers, organizations, and movements engaged in documenting structural realities and advancing people-centered perspectives across the region.

Read more: https://www.aprnet.org/at-the-eye-of-the-imperialist-storm-the-situation-in-the-asia-pacific/

28/01/2026

Drawing from the keynote address by Jiten Yumnam of the Center for Research and Advocacy - Manipur during the APRN Research Conference 2025, these reflections situate conflict in the Asia-Pacific within broader structures of imperialism, militarization, and extractive economic systems.

The analysis foregrounds how competition over land, resources, trade routes, and geopolitical influence continues to produce displacement, repression, and humanitarian crises across the region.

Achieving peace is inseparable from achieving justice, self-determination, and the collective struggles of affected communities. People’s resistance and solidarity is central to advancing a peace that is holistic, durable, and grounded in lived realities.

Read more: https://www.aprnet.org/imperialism-conflict-and-fostering-peace-in-asia/

22/01/2026

In photos: APRN Biennial Research Conference 2025 in Kathmandu, Nepal, convened researchers from Asia-Pacific countries under the theme “Pursuing the Path Toward Peace: People’s Resistance and Collective Solutions.” Across two days of keynote, panels, and workshops, participants examined how militarism, extractivism, and debt-driven development reshape conflicts, civic space, and livelihoods while advancing people-centered research grounded in rights, accountability, and collective resistance in the Asia Pacific Region.

19/01/2026

The APRN Research Conference 2025 Communiqué is now out.

Held in Kathmandu, Nepal, the biennial conference brought together researchers from Asia-Pacific countries to examine how militarism, extractivism, and geopolitical rivalry are reshaping conflicts, livelihoods, and civic space across the region.

Through people-centered analyses on women and militarism, climate and digitalization, workers’ and rural peoples’ struggles, and community resistance, the conference reaffirmed that research for peace must be rooted in justice, accountability, and collective solutions.

APRN and their member organizations renew their commitment to research that serves the people, strengthens movements, and advances peace with justice across the Asia Pacific.

Read the full communiqué here: https://www.aprnet.org/aprn-research-conference-2025-communique/

23/12/2025

The Asia Pacific Research Network extends its greetings and solidarity to our member organizations, partners, and volunteers across the region.

Together, we have pushed forward people-centered research and challenged systems that perpetuate inequality. This season is a moment to reflect on our shared work and the power of collective action.

As we move into 2026, we remain committed to building knowledge that serves the people and advancing struggles for social justice and genuine development ✊💙

07/11/2025

Join us for a report-back on migrant visibility, focusing on the situation in Taiwan and Japan, in partnership with Migrante Taiwan, Serve the People Association, KAFIN Migrant Center, Migrante Japan, and the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC).

Date: 7 November 2025, Friday
Time: 18:00 Taipei | 19:00 Tokyo
Register via:
🔗https://tinyurl.com/EmpowerMigrants

Empowering Migrants Towards Visibility, Inclusion, and Solidarity in the Digital Age
RESEARCH REPORT BACK

Date: 7 November 2025, Friday
Time: 18:00 Taipei | 19:00 Tokyo
Register via:
🔗https://tinyurl.com/EmpowerMigrants
🔗https://tinyurl.com/EmpowerMigrants
🔗https://tinyurl.com/EmpowerMigrants

With the rise of racism, xenophobia, and anti-im/migrant sentiments across the world, APRN, Migrante Taiwan, Serve the People Association, KAFIN Migrant Center, and Migrante Japan sought to understand how Taiwanese and Japanese people perceive their migrant neighbors.

Join our report back!

If you have questions in advance, feel free to send us a message.

15/09/2025

The Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN) participated in “Stills of Resistance: A Photo Exhibit on the Resistance of the Filipino People Against US Military Bases in the Philippines,” held on September 13, 2025 at the College of Mass Communication, University of the Philippines Diliman. The exhibit was organized in commemoration of the historic rejection of the US-Philippines Military Bases Agreement on September 13, 1991. This triumph was the result of decades of mass resistance, protests, and demonstrations built on the sacrifices and determination of the Filipino people who stood firm for sovereignty.

The exhibit shed light on the continuing struggle against US military presence in the country. Speakers highlighted the pivotal role of the people’s movement in dismantling decades of US bases in the Philippines and underscored the importance of archives in advancing the broader fight against imperialism.

The event was organized in partnership with Resist US-Led Wars and Intervention in Asia and the Pacific Campaign, BAYAN - Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, Altermidya, IBON Foundation, and Congress of Teachers and Educators for Nationalism and Democracy (CONTEND).