Social development
US House calls on Myanmar to release journalists
The US House of Representatives called nearly unanimously on Thursday (Dec 13) for the government of Myanmar to release Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who were imprisoned one year ago in a landmark free speech case. Keep reading ...
Chinese companies top human rights ‘dirty list’ of firms complicit in Myanmar violations
Chinese companies make up the bulk of a “dirty list” of corporations accused of involvement in human rights and environmental violations in Myanmar, or of doing business with the country’s military. The list of 49 companies from the US, UK, France, Switzerland, China and elsewhere, compiled ...
Number of Journalists Jailed For Doing Job Near Record High: Report
A near-record number of journalists around the world are behind bars for their work, including two Reuters reporters whose imprisonment in Myanmar has drawn international criticism, according to a report released on Thursday. There were 251 journalists jailed for doing their jobs as of Dec. 1, the ...
Arts festival for Lancang-Mekong countries opens in southwest China
The annual culture and arts festival for countries along the Lancang-Mekong River opened Wednesday in southwest China’s Yunnan Province. More than 260 artists from countries including China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand attended the opening ceremony of the event, which is held in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous ...
Mekong women pressed into marriage in China
Everyone did well from Nary’s marriage to a Chinese man, except the young Cambodian bride herself, who returned home from the six-year ordeal destitute, humiliated and with little prospect of seeing her son again. Keep reading ...
Thousands of Myanmar women forced into marriage in China: study
Thousands of vulnerable women and girls from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam are sold as brides each year, according to a new study. Keep reading ...
Cambodia frees 32 surrogate mothers after they vow to keep their babies following
Thirty-two Cambodian women who were charged with human trafficking for serving as surrogate mothers have been provisionally released from detention after agreeing to keep the babies rather than giving them up as originally planned, officials said on Wednesday. []Surrogacy was banned in 2016 because the country ...
Buddhism in Southeast Asia: a Catalyst for Civic Exchange
On 13 November, Buddhist leaders from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia met in Vientiane, the capital of Laos,to “strengthen co-operation between the three countries’ Buddhist organizations and promote and develop Lao Buddhism [both] in the region and internationally.” This meeting, attended by over 500 monastics, was called ...
New Strategies Needed as EAOs Adapt to Changes in Drug Demand
There is both good news and bad news for Myanmar on the drug front: a sharp decline in opium cultivation and a shift toward synthetic drugs, especially methamphetamine. In the past 20 years, opium cultivation has declined to 41,000 hectares, a 75 percent drop from ...
INGOs Discourage Repatriation for their Own Interests: Gov’t Spokesperson
The Myanmar government’s spokesperson U Zaw Htay has accused international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) of deliberately discouraging refugees in Bangladesh from returning to Myanmar due to their own business interests. Speaking at the government’s press conference on Friday, U Zaw Htay, also director-general of the President’s ...
