Law and judiciary
Legal framework
Vietnam court upholds 9-year jail sentence for democracy activist
A Vietnamese court has upheld a nine-year prison term for prominent human rights campaigner and writer Pham Doan Trang, who was convicted of anti-state activities, her lawyers and state media said. On Thursday, the Hanoi People’s High Court rejected Trang’s appeal of a sentence handed down in December ...
AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
Southeast Asia’s abortion laws reset at the borders
Abortion is a global health issue, impacting individuals and families regardless of ethnicity, income, social status or nationality. Yet there is no worldwide legal standard for the practice of terminating a pregnancy. Lawmakers and governments hold sway over access to abortion, or its abolition. In the ...
BRIAN P. D. HANNON
Laos Needs Improved Hydropower Safety Legislation: Energy Minister
Lao Minister of Energy and Mines, Mr. Daovong Phonekeo, says enacting a specific law to ensure dam safety is a vital part of the country’s efforts to achieve sustainable energy development. Minister Daovong told the National Assembly on Thursday that while there are regulations and standards controlling ...
Latsamy Phonevilay
US lawmakers urge Thai govt to drop restrictive provisions in NGO bill
Two U.S. lawmakers are urging Thailand to drop provisions of a draft bill restricting NGOs, saying it would harm civil society and negatively impact the delivery of humanitarian assistance to neighboring Myanmar. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha’s government is seeking to pass a controversial bill regulating not-for-profit ...
Nontarat Phaicharoen and Subel Rai Bhandari
Cambodia’s updated investment law gives incentives to green business
A recently promulgated update to a 2003 law on investment is redefining incentives for more than a dozen business sectors. This is only the Kingdom’s second investment law and it expands the range of environmentally focused organisations eligible for incentives. The list of eligible business sectors ...
ANTON L. DELGADO
Info access draft law all set for final review
Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said access to knowledge is indispensable in a democratic society and expressed hope that people will soon be able to have more confidence when choosing their leaders once the new draft law on information access is passed. “Universal access to information ...
Ry Sochan
Draft social protection law unveiled
The government has drawn up a “Draft Law on Social Protection System” to ensure minimum standards of well-being and reduce economic and financial vulnerabilities. The draft law is designed to strengthen the income security of the people and promote social equality through the creation and management ...
Thou Vireak
Vietnam introduces nationwide code of conduct for social media
Vietnam introduced national guidelines on social media behaviour on Friday which encourage people to post positive content about the Southeast Asian country and require state employees to report “conflicting information” to their superiors. The code prohibits posts which violate the law and “affect the interests of ...
Phuong Nguyen, James Pearson
Thailand’s proposed NGO law will devastate civil society
In 2015, two years before the state-driven collapse of Cambodia’s political opposition, the national government dominated by the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) approved the Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organisations (LANGO). When the law was first put forward in 2011, it was met with significant opposition, ...
MARK S. COGAN
‘What other country would do this to its people?’ Cambodian land grab victims seek int’l justice
“It started when some people from the government came around the community telling us that we were illegally occupying the land,” Chhae Kimsrour said in June 2020. “I’ve lived here since 1995, but six months later they came back and started filling in my lake. ...
GERALD FLYNN, PHOUNG VANTHA