Social development
Human rights
Girls, you are not alone in the fight for rights
In an attempt to continue promoting young women’s rights and gender equality, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs led the commemoration of International Day of the Girl Child in the Kingdom in partnership with Plan International Cambodia. The celebration presided over by Im Sithe, Secretary of State ...
Yim Sreylin
Thailand’s Anti-Torture Bill Could Finally End Refugee Push-Backs
Thailand took a momentous step on 24 August —not only because of a shock decision by the Constitutional Court to suspend Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha from his duties, but also because parliament finally passed a historic anti-torture bill. Once fully enacted, the Bill, formally known as ...
PATRICK PHONGSATHORN
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
Vietnam court upholds 9-year jail sentence for democracy activist
A Vietnamese court has upheld a nine-year prison term for prominent human rights campaigner and writer Pham Doan Trang, who was convicted of anti-state activities, her lawyers and state media said. On Thursday, the Hanoi People’s High Court rejected Trang’s appeal of a sentence handed down in December ...
AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
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
Southeast Asia’s abortion laws reset at the borders
Abortion is a global health issue, impacting individuals and families regardless of ethnicity, income, social status or nationality. Yet there is no worldwide legal standard for the practice of terminating a pregnancy. Lawmakers and governments hold sway over access to abortion, or its abolition. In the ...
BRIAN P. D. HANNON
Vietnam falls far short of its committment to freedom of expression, report says
Vietnam has a long way to go before it can realize its goal of joining the UN Human Rights council, according to the Vietnam Human Rights Network (VNHRN). The pressure group points to Vietnam’s treatment of journalists, who the government says are protected from all ...
By RFA Vietnamese
Myanmar Junta's War Crime Displaces Thousands of Civilians in Kachin State
Nearly 6,000 people have fled their homes and approximately 25 have been killed in Kachin and northern Shan states by Myanmar’s regime forces from November 2021 to April, according to the rights group Kachin Women’s Association of Thailand (KWAT). KWAT’s “New Threats from the Air” report ...
NORA AUNG
Thailand seeks stricter controls over nonprofit groups
Thai activist Porntin Say Yom and her neighbours fought more than 10 years to shut down a gold mine in northeast Thailand’s Loei province. “We successfully closed the gold mine because we came together as a group to defend our rights,” Yom said. But in late May, ...
JACK BROOK
Mekong News Agency journalist Maung Maung Myo jailed on terrorism charges in Myanmar
Myanmar authorities should immediately and unconditionally release journalist Maung Maung Myo and stop jailing members of the press for reporting the news, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday. Around 6 p.m. on May 10, Maung Myo, a contributor to the local Mekong News Agency, was traveling ...
CPJ