Social development
COVID-19 Drives New Surge in Trafficking of Women From Laos to China
Economic hardship in Lao villages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is driving a new surge in the trafficking to China of Lao women and girls desperate to find jobs, police and other sources in the Southeast Asian country say. “Right now, our police department is working ...
Reported by RFA’s Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Genocide Designation for Myanmar Tests Biden’s Human Rights Policy
Three years ago, American investigators produced a 15,000-page analysis of atrocities committed in 2017 against the Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority group in Myanmar. The report documented survivors’ accounts of gang rapes, crucifixions, mutilations, of children being burned or drowned and of families locked inside their blazing ...
Lara Jakes
Vietnam arrests four for anti-state Facebook posts
Police in Hanoi and a central province have detained four Facebookers for posts allegedly infringing state interests and fighting against the communist government. State-run Quang Ngai newspaper reported on June 30 that police in Quang Ngai province arrested Bach Van Hien, 34, Phung Thanh Tuyen, 38, and Le ...
UCA News reporter, Hanoi
Lao Authorities and Women’s Union Assist Trafficking Victims
Lao authorities in cooperation with the Lao Women’s Union have successfully assisted two young women who became victims of human trafficking. The young women, aged between 14 and 16 years, were to be trafficked to China following a deal brokered between their parents and a trafficking ...
Phayboune Thanabouasy
Vietnam worried about continued violence, extreme racial discrimination
Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the United Nations (UN), has urged the Israeli side to exercise maximum restraint and take measures to prevent hostile and racist acts in all forms. Addressing a meeting on June 24 of the UN Security Council (UNSC) on the Middle ...
VNA
Vietnam: LGBTQ+ Pride in the Time of Coronavirus
The gay former Icelandic Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir said, “It is absolutely imperative that every human being’s freedom and human rights are respected, all over the world.” Sigurðardóttir’s message, delivered while defending LGBTQ+ rights at a 2014 Pride festival, would certainly have been welcomed by ...
Hugh Bohane
Vietnam introduces nationwide code of conduct for social media
Vietnam introduced national guidelines on social media behaviour on Friday which encourage people to post positive content about the Southeast Asian country and require state employees to report “conflicting information” to their superiors. The code prohibits posts which violate the law and “affect the interests of ...
Phuong Nguyen, James Pearson
Justice Delayed For Jailed Activists, RFA Journalists in Cambodia
Family members and colleagues of detained labor and border activist Rong Chhun and youth activist Sar Kanika said they are disappointed that the Phnom Penh Municipal Court denied their bail requests following a hearing on Tuesday. The two activists did not appear at their hearings because ...
RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
NGO-run special needs education school incorporated into state framework
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport has transformed the Hands of Hope Community – an NGO-run autism school in Takhmo commune’s Prek Samrong village in Kandal province’s Takhmao town – into a public high school for the academic year 2020-2021 onwards. According to the ministry’s ...
Long Kimmarita
A wake-up call to Asia, tackle your own 'Asian hate'
For expatriates like me, an unexpected upside to life in Bangkok during the COVID-19 outbreak is that it has become significantly easier to hail a taxi. Before the pandemic, drivers would often ignore me or try to rip me off, thinking I was among the millions of ...
YUKAKO ONO