Human rights

A prominent local rights group has been forced to abandon its annual International Human Rights Day (IHRD) events in Cambodia’s prisons for the first time in 20 years because of “prohibitive” conditions imposed by the government, it said on 6 December. In a statement, Licadho said ...

A Polish citizen of Lao heritage jailed in Laos for criticizing the government online will not be among hundreds of prisoners granted pardons by the end of the year because he “does not meet the proper criteria,” according to a public security official. Lao authorities arrested ...

The New York Times’ printer in Thailand has refused to print one of its articles, leaving a blank space on its cover page. The article, titled “Thai spirits sagging with the economy”, discussed the country’s flagging economy and touched on royal succession concerns. The printer withheld an ...

Hard-line nationalist Buddhist monk U Wirathu has revealed that his Committee for the Protection of Race and Religion, known as Ma Ba Tha, is providing aid to displaced Christians in war-ravaged Kachin State. Ma Ba Tha said it had donated K6 million for internally displaced persons ...

The government knew two Chinese men it detained were refugees awaiting resettlement in Canada, but still deported them to China, according to a United Nations letter seen by Reuters. The letter, sent by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ...

Countless rape victims, many of them children, have been failed by widespread flaws in Cambodia’s justice system, which have led to a “disturbingly low” number of convictions, a new study by the rights group Licadho has found. In its report, Getting Away With It: The Treatment ...

The Chinese government confirmed it has repatriated and detained two dissidents who were living in Thailand and had won UN recognition as refugees, a state-run newspaper reported 26 November. Thai police handed over the two Chinese men — Jiang Yefei and Dong Guanping — to Chinese ...

The renewed tensions between the ruling Cambodian People’s Party and opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party threaten to push Cambodia towards a “dangerous tipping point” if not resolved, the UN’s human rights envoy has said. Her words came as CNRP president Sam Rainsy, a warrant issued for ...

A Muslim publisher and four others have been detained in Insein Prison for attempting to produce a calendar containing quotes from government officials in the 1950s and 1960s using the term “Rohingya”. The calendar contains quotes from speeches by former prime minister U Nu and other ...

More Montagnard asylum seekers prepared to return to Vietnam on 23 November after giving up on obtaining refugee status in Phnom Penh, while five Rohingya refugees set off for resettlement in Canada. Wan-Hea Lee, country representative of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human ...