Legal framework

The ten signatories to the National Cease fire Agreement started a five-day meeting at Chiang Mai from May 14-18 to discuss about the agreement and how to move the peace process forward. It looks that having been brought into the “bag”, the smaller groups which have ...

Having watched popular protests, from the color revolutions in the former Soviet Union to the Arab Spring, challenge their counterparts’ power, the world’s autocrats have been adopting legal measures aimed at incapacitating civic groups, including pro-democracy movements and human-rights NGOs. Among the most sweeping measures are those enabling officials to ...

The depletion of mangroves in southern Myanmar is impacting local fisheries near the island villages and playing havoc with the mangrove forest that protect the coastline from extreme weather events. The illegal charcoal trade persists due to a lack of law enforcement and oversight in Myanmar ...

In a classroom on the outskirts of Myanmar’s biggest city, a thin, bespectacled university student led about a dozen peers in boisterous chants of “Censorship is a shame!” and “We don’t believe in censorship!”  It was the final rehearsal of a troupe performing “thangyat”, a centuries-old ...

Daycha Siripatra, founder of the Khaokwan Foundation, would have remained largely unknown had the police and anti-narcotics officials not raided the foundation’s premises in Suphan Buri province and seized 200 cannabis plants, some marijuana extract, oil and seeds.  They also arrested senior foundation member Pornchai Choolert and ...

Myanmar’s parliament is expected to approve in May a bill that would authorise the setting up of foreigner-only casinos in the country, the Myanmar Times newspaper reported on Sunday. The parliament is expected to sit again later this month after an April holiday break. Keep reading ...

Recent findings from the Index underscore the challenge that Myanmar faces in combating illicit trade. Myanmar ranks 82nd out of 84 countries evaluated, with an overall score of 23.0 (out of 100). This means that — apart from Iraq and Libya — Myanmar shows the ...

An investigator has called on the international body that polices trade in wildlife to crack down on the illegal trafficking of young elephants across borders in south-east Asia. Secretive agents in Laos are sending dozens of animals each year across the country’s land border with China and fly others to the Middle East, earning up ...

THE RAPID growth of Bitcoin-related scams and other cybercrimes has prompted the United Nations to urge member countries, including Thailand, to step up their legal safeguards against potential economic losses. Cybercrime-related losses worldwide top US$600 billion (Bt19.6 trillion), said Julien Garsany, deputy regional representative of ...

A primary school principal in Cambodia became the first person to be charged under the kingdom’s new lese majeste law on Sunday over a comment he wrote on Facebook, officials said. Cambodia made insulting the king a crime in February, triggering alarm from rights groups who ...