Social development
Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam See Continued Rights Abuses, Restrictions on Free Expression: Report
Lao, Cambodia, and Vietnam imposed serious restrictions on freedom of expression and the press over the last year, with all three countries also holding political prisoners and interfering with the rights of citizens to peacefully protest, according to an annual State Department report released on ...
Richard Finney
Welcome to 'year of fact-checking'
More than 30,000 people have joined Collaborative Fact Checking (Cofact) Thailand to combat fake news during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth), Cofact Thailand, the International Fact Checking Network and other anti-fake news organisations yesterday held a seminar to mark International Fact-Checking Day ...
‘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
Sci-tech application to be promoted to ensure food security
Prioritising resources for the research, application, and transfer of science and technology to diversify food products to ensure nutritional balance and food safety in people’s diet is one of the long-term targets set in the Government’s resolution on ensuring national food security until 2030. The resolution, issued on ...
VNA
Myanmar’s Women Are on the Front Lines Against the Junta
In recent weeks, Nandar has taken to cycling. Armed with a hard hat, a face mask, and a paper sign stuck to her bike showing the words “No to dictatorship, no to patriarchy,” the 26-year-old feminist activist spends most days traversing Yangon, Myanmar, as part ...
JESSIE LAU
Thailand’s Indigenous Peoples fight for ‘land of our heart’ (commentary)
On Sept. 3, 2019, the remains of Porlajee “Billy” Rakchongcharoen, a Karen environmental and community rights defender who was disappeared in 2014, were found in an oil drum submerged under the Kaeng Krachan dam suspension bridge in Phetchaburi, Thailand. Billy was last seen by his community while ...
Pirawan Wongnithisathaporn, Thomas Worsdell
For some the nightmare has returned, but for ethnic people the nightmare never stopped
When the military seized power on February 1, arresting elected National League for Democracy (NLD) leaders including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, the current nightmare started. The people of Myanmar already know what life is like under a military regime: No ...
Esther Wah
Jailed Lao Activist Silenced by Government, but Continues to Inspire
Laos says women are now more respected and protected on International Women’s Day Monday, but the words might ring hollow to Houayheuang Xayabouly, who languishes in jail more than a year after her arrest for a Facebook post complaining about the communist government’s failure to ...
RFA’s Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
1,790 health professionals in Bangkok get vaccinated
Nearly 1,800 health professionals working in six districts that have high risk of infection have been inoculated with the Covid-19 vaccine since March 1, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) reported on Friday. The BMA has provided inoculation to 1,790 healthcare personnel through 13 private hospitals, three ...
Human Rights Abuses in Laos Are Rampant. International Businesses Should Take Action.
Authoritarianism in Laos is at the root of illegal land grabs, land grievances, and ongoing human rights violations. The upcoming elections in Laos are unlikely to change this. International business stakeholders, however, can do more to support local communities and uphold fundamental human rights. The Lao ...
Malaak Jamal and Jenny Wang