Singapore's ‘permit regime’ undermines the citizens’ right to protest

Singapore has filed criminal charges against activist Jolovan Wham and six other human rights advocates for organizing unpermitted assemblies in 2024 and 2025, including candlelight vigils for death row prisoners, letters to government agencies, and a kite-flying event over the killing of children in Palestine.

Wham faces ten charges under the Public Order Act; if convicted, defendants could face fines up to SGD 10,000 and prison terms up to three years. More than 300 supporters turned out at the State Courts, which activist Teo Soh Lung called an unprecedented show of solidarity in Singapore's recent history.

Rights groups Amnesty International, CIVICUS and Human Rights Watch issued a joint statement calling the prosecutions a violation of expression and assembly rights and warning of a chilling effect on civic engagement. The opposition Red Dot United and Singapore Democratic Party both criticized the law, though Singapore's dominant ruling party has relied on such statutes since the 1960s.

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