Social development
Human rights
Cambodia's micro-loans accused of 'predatory' lending
Two prominent civil society groups in Cambodia have released a report detailing predatory practices by local microfinance institutions (MFIs), including coerced land sales. The joint report, released on Wednesday by human rights group, Licadho, and land rights group, Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT), spans 10 communities in four provinces ...
Andrew Nachemson
Concerns Being Raised About Thailand’s Human Rights Commission
Concerns are being raised after the resignation of two prominent human rights advocates from the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand. An alarm bell signaling the need for a total revamp of the flawed and scandal-ridden agency. Thailand’s Human Rights Commissioners Angkhana Neelapaijit and Tuenjai Deetes announced their resignations ...
Cambodian Court Begins Trial of Former RFA Reporters Charged With Espionage
A court in Cambodia on Friday began trial proceedings against two former Radio Free Asia journalists accused of espionage, with the defendants acknowledging that they had continued to provide information to their past employer after it had closed its bureau in Phnom Penh. The two denied, ...
Fed-up with graft, the public turns to social media for justice
While social media campaigns can and do attract significant support online, rarely do they translate into real-world action on this scale. That an estimated 6,000 demonstrators marched to the Criminal Investigation Department office in Yangon’s Insein Township on July 6 speaks to the growing concern over the ...
Family Members Welcome Expected Release of Jailed Vietnamese Journalist
Family members hailed the anticipated release in August of jailed Vietnamese photojournalist Nguyen Dang Minh Man during a visit this week to her prison in northern Vietnam’s Than Hoa province, praising her courage behind bars during the last eight years. Meanwhile, two political prisoners held in ...
Submission by Human Rights Watch to the Committee on the Rights of the Child Concerning Cambodia
Human Rights Watch research in Cambodia exposed one of the human rights perils of unauthorized subcontracting in the supply chains of global apparel companies. Our research carried out between April 2018 and January 2019, and published in March 2015, documented instances of child labor in ...
Vietnam proposes establishing global network on ocean-sea data sharing
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc proposed an initiative to form a global network on sharing data on oceans and sea, towards a global framework on preventing marine plastic waste at a discussion on climate and environment within the framework of the G20 Summit in Osaka ...
US joins calls for Myanmar to end internet shutdown
Myanmar is facing increasing pressure to immediately end a mobile internet blackout in parts of two of its states, with the United States becoming the latest to call for the lifting of the data restrictions. Myanmar’s Ministry of Transport and Communications on June 21 ordered mobile phone operators to shut down ...
Facial recognition push in South raises rights concern
Telecom firms under focus for ultimatum to phone users on submission of photos; isoc denies sending registration message Rights defenders raised concerns yesterday over the move to force all |cellphone users in the restive South to submit their pictures for facial-recognition identification. Those who fail to do ...
Rohingyas bring a statement to ASEAN Summit, police block them
On Sunday 23 June, the Rohingya Community in Thailand planned to hand a statement to Myanmar, Thailand as ASEAN’s chair, and the leaders of the ASEAN countries, but the police blocked them. They therefore decided not to go to the ASEAN Summit and Thai Ministry ...
