On 15 February, Canada launched the Declaration Against Arbitrary Detention in State-to-State Relations ^[1], a global initiative that aims to raise awareness and stop the practice of arbitrary detention. The Strategist’s Brendan Nicholson speaks with Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, senior fellow with the Institute for Science, Society and Policy at the University of Ottawa, about the declaration’s effectiveness and whether more can be done through global cooperation.

In December, Senator Rex Patrick tabled a bill ^[2] in the Australian parliament to ban the importation into Australia of goods produced by Uyghur forced labour. ASPI’s Kelsey Munro and James Leibold discuss Australia’s response to human rights abuses in Xinjiang and look at whether the proposed bill would be an effective tool to address forced labour globally.

ASPI’s John Coyne and Teagan Westendorf discuss the strategies international police are using to combat organised crime across Southeast Asia. They talk about the impact of the arrest of Tse Chi Lop on organised crime in the region and policy options to counter this challenge.