Human rights

Economic, social and cultural rights

Indigenous rights bill languishes

Thailand is home to over 6 million indigenous people. Yet many are outlawed, denied basic rights, and subject to many forms of oppression. This must change.  According to the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, about 10% of the population belongs to 60 indigenous and ethnic ...

BANGKOK POST EDITORIAL COLUMN

Survivors haunted by Myanmar army massacre in Sagaing

No one will stay in the eastern parts of Mone Taing Pin anymore, where locals claim that dogs howl without provocation, putrid odours materialise and vanish, and shadowy figures are spotted only to disappear before they can be identified. In May, the military massacred nearly 30 people in ...

Ko Cho

‘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

Pressing the mute button

The fast-approaching Christmas and New Year celebrations are supposed to ignite a sense of joy among the public, but such enthusiasm has long been curbed by the pandemic crisis that has sunk economies and hopes around the globe. With a feeling of unease in the air ...

WICHIT CHANTANUSORNSIRI, PATHOM SANGWONGWANICH AND SUCHIT LEESA-NGUANSUK

‘I have to do this’: Myanmar garment workers forced into sex work by Covid

When Hla, 19, tried to go back to work seven months ago after having a baby, there were no jobs. Hundreds of garment factories in Myanmar had closed after western fashion brands cancelled orders due to the pandemic, leaving thousands of women jobless. As lockdown gripped Yangon, ...

Lorcan Lovett and Nay Chi Nway

How the pandemic made fintech matter again in Myanmar

Myanmar was considered Asia’s last frontier market, not too long ago – rich in natural resources and investment potential, but only just emerging to the possibilities of digitization. About a decade later, sweeping reforms brought a new era of connectivity, bringing down the cost of smartphones and mobile ...

Joe Devanesan

Land to lose: coronavirus compounds debt crisis in Cambodia

As dark clouds approached her village in northwestern Cambodia one afternoon in July, Set Sreylon prepared for the monsoon that threatened to flood her new family home. While the rains were a concern, the 37-year-old feared a bigger threat to her property – the daily visits ...

Matt Blomberg, Mech Dara

Lao Farm Worker Beaten, Tied Up, in Dispute at Chinese Banana Plantation

A young Lao worker was beaten, shocked and tied up by his employers at a Chinese banana plantation in northwestern Laos in a dispute over working hours, his relatives said. Lou Xiong’s relatives say he was beaten and shocked by Lao and Chinese employers at a ...

RFA's Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Paul Eckert.

Job losses, pay cuts, force Cambodians into bad debts

In the mid-1970s, when the city crashed and burned in a warped socialist uprising led by Communist Party of Kampuchea leader Pol Pot, untold fear gripped the people. Today, although less menacing, the fear is surreal as Covid-19 does a number on the economy. It has resulted ...

Sangeetha Amarthalingam

Xayaboury earthquake damage estimated at 2 billion kip

Damage to property in Hongsa and Xaysathan districts of Xayaboury province has been estimated at over 2 billion kip after at least 300 families were affected by an earthquake last week. Director of the province’s Labour and Social Welfare Department, Mr Nouphone Xaypanyachith, said two earthquakes ...

Contact us

Contact us

Do you have questions on the content published by Open Development Mekong? We will gladly help you.

Have you found a technical problem or issue on the Open Development Mekong website?

Tell us how we're doing.

Do you have resources that could help expand the Open Development Mekong website? We will review any map data, laws, articles, and documents that we do not yet have and see if we can implement them into our site. Please make sure the resources are in the public domain or fall under a Creative Commons license.

File was deleted
ERROR!

Disclaimer: Open Development Mekong will thoroughly review all submitted resources for integrity and relevancy before the resources are hosted. All hosted resources will be in the public domain, or licensed under Creative Commons. We thank you for your support.

cef5m
* The idea box couldn't be blank! Something's gone wrong, Please Resubmit the form! Please add the code correctly​ first.

Thank you for taking the time to get in contact!