Social development

Human rights

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

Future Remains Cloudy for Exiled Myanmar Journalists in Thailand

It has been more than a year since Myanmar’s military seized power in a putsch that sent thousands fleeing the country. Among them were scores of media professionals who took up refuge here in Thailand. Some have since moved on or resettled elsewhere, but others stayed ...

Teeranai Charuvastra

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