Social development
Japan offers $5m for refugee resettlement in Myanmar's Kachin
The Japanese government announced in late December that it will launch an aid program to help internally displaced people in a conflict zone in Myanmar’s northern state of Kachin to return home. China has strong influence in northern Myanmar, including Kachin. Countrywide, Japan and China are ...
Yuichi Nitta
Thanathorn vows to fight for the basic rights of Thailand’s ethnic minorities
The opposition Future Forward party will, next year, press for state recognition of the basic rights of Thailand’s ethnic minorities, which include rights of access to state welfare and ancestral land rights, says Future Forward party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit. The embattled party leader, party spokeswoman Pannika ...
Reintegration shelter for human trafficking victims in Lao Cai
Nguyen Thi Van (not her real name) from the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai was lured across the border to China and sold off as a wife when she was 16 years old. Three months later, she escaped from her husband and returned to Vietnam, but it ...
TBA to announce guidelines on protection of clients' data
The Thai Bankers’ Association (TBA) will issue practice guidelines for commercial banks in handling clients’ personal data, following the enforcement of the personal data protection law in May next year. The Personal Data Protection Act, B.E. 2562 (2019) regarding the collection, use, or disclosure of personal ...
Thai reporter gets jail in libel case filed by poultry farm
A court in Thailand on Tuesday sentenced a reporter to two years in prison for criminal libel for a comment she tweeted about a labor abuse grievance at a poultry farm. The case against Suchanee Cloitre, then working for Voice TV, is one of 20 lawsuits ...
Busaba Sivasomboon and Grant Peck / AP
Myanmar’s ‘Rohingya’ vs ‘Bengali’ Hate Speech Debate
Rohingya activists have accused the Myanmar Press Council, a quasi-government media adjudication and ethics body, of defending the practice of using the word “Bengali” to refer to the Rohingya. Rights groups and Rohingya advocates argue that the term amounts to “hate speech” and that it is ...
Shafiur Rahman
Vietnam builds new national strategy on gender equality
More than 80 experts from governmental agencies, domestic and international organizations, and academia attended “The launching workshop on the review of the National Strategy on Gender Equality and the development of the new National Strategy on Gender Equality 2021-2030” in Hanoi on December 6. The workshop ...
CHRC seeks to end LGBT discrimination
The Cambodian Human Rights Committee president spoke during a pro-LGBT event in Phnom Penh on Saturday and called on the public to end discrimination and prevent violence against the community. The event, organised by Rainbow Community Kampuchea, was held during International Human Rights Day. CHRC president Keo ...
Pech Sotheary
China, Cambodia join hands to develop model village for poverty alleviation in Cambodia
China Foundation for Peace and Development (CFPD) and Cambodia’s Civil Society Alliance Forum (CSAF) signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) here on Friday to work together to develop a Cambodia-China friendship model village for poverty alleviation. The MoA was inked by CFPD’s secretary-general Xu Jianguo and ...
Vietnam Jails Six Bloggers, Activists in One-day Sweep Across the Country
Vietnamese courts on Thursday sentenced six dissident bloggers and activists to long terms in prison amid a continuing crackdown on online expressions of dissent in the one-party communist state that has seen dozens of people jailed this year, sources said. In southeastern Vietnam’s Dong Nai province, ...
