David Lozada
PhD
Asia Institute
David finished his Master of Development Studies (first class honours) as an Australia Awards Scholar from the University of Melbourne. He is currently a PhD candidate at the Asia Institute. His research examines the political economy of human rights in the Philippines, having recently finished fieldwork on human rights mobilisations against four key issues of the Rodrigo Duterte regime. David also has research backgrounds in human rights, peace building, conflict, development inequality, and HIV/AIDS in the Philippines.
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Thesis
Mobilising for Human Rights in Duterte's Philippines
My dissertation examines human rights mobilisations against abuses of the regime of Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines in four issues - the war on drugs/ extra-judicial killings, press freedom, death penalty, and lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility MACR). The goal is to explain the variety in outcomes in terms of state responses, and come up with an understanding of the politics of human rights in the Philippines during the Duterte era. The key research question for the dissertation is: What are the conditions necessary for human rights mobilisations to succeed in the Philippines under Duterte?