Civil society

Concern continues to rise among civil society for the safety of members of the Bang Kloi Karen indigenous community who returned to their ancestral land at Chai Phaen Din in the Kaeng Krachan forest, after reports of a possible military operation to evacuate them from ...

Over a hundred participants from various sectors, which have been working on development issues in the Mekong Basin, attended the two-day seminar held in Chiang Rai’ Chiang Khong district, where has been one of the locations which have long suffered from development projects in the ...

After almost two decades of campaigning against hydro-dams and water projects built on the Mekong River, local civic groups and conservationists finally launched the “Mekong People’s Forum,” with the hope of moving their campaign to a policy level. The forum was held on Dec 1–2 in ...

Motivated to build a green industrial zone in Cambodia, the newly-established NGO Environmental Protection Industry Associations of Cambodia (Epiac) will work with Chinese-owned industrial park developer and operator QiLu (Cambodia) Special Economic Zone Co Ltd to set a new precedent for environmentally-friendly design and construction. On ...

More than 20 years ago, when two Chiang Rai-based environmentalists, Niwat Roikaew and Somkiat Kuenwongsa, learned that the Chinese government were blasting rapids in the upper Mekong River from Yunnan to Myanmar and Laos to clear the way for large commercial vessels, they started worrying. Back ...

Myanmar, a Southeastern Asian country roughly the size of Texas, houses almost 54 million people. In 2005, almost half of Myanmar’s population lived in poverty. However, a report released by the Central Statistical Organization (CSO) determined that Myanmar successfully increased its GDP and cut poverty to 24.8% ...

A recent draft of the cybercrime law obtained by VOA Khmer has drawn concerns from NGOs and rights groups over clauses that could help the government intensify its crackdown on freedom of expression, while also raising privacy and data collection concerns. The draft law, the formulation ...

Outspoken Vietnamese democracy activist and author Pham Doan Trang has been arrested on anti-state propaganda charges, police and state media said Wednesday, as rights groups condemned her apprehension just hours after annual U.S.-Vietnam human rights talks and warned that the blogger faced the risk of ...

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam attended the programme “Connecting millions of hearts” in Hanoi on October 10 to launch a charity movement on the iNhandao platform and debut digital platforms in education, health care and culture. The event was part of the project on developing the digital ...

The Union Election Commission (UEC) reversed its decision and decided to allow the People’s Alliance for Credible Elections (PACE), a local poll monitor, to observe the conduct of the upcoming November 8 polls. Sai Ye Kyaw Swar Myint, executive director of the PACE, said the UEC ...