Social development
Human rights
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Refugees’ citizenship demands ‘impossible’: Myanmar govt
Administrators in northern Rakhine State say it would be “impossible” for the government to agree to Rohingya refugees’ citizenship demands, in a further sign that Rohingya repatriation is likely to proceed slowly – if at all. Repatriation of up to 2,200 verified refugees from Bangladesh ...
Myanmar: EU mission assesses human rights and labour rights situation
A monitoring mission of experts from the European Commission and the European External Action Service visited Myanmar from 28 to 31 October. This follows deeply worrying developments highlighted in various United Nations reports, in particular as regards human rights violations in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan ...
Vietnam cyber law set for tough enforcement despite Google, Facebook pleas
Vietnam is preparing to strictly enforce a new cybersecurity law requiring global technology companies to set up local offices and store data locally despite pleas from Facebook, Google and other firms, a government document showed. Keep reading ...
Atrocities against Rohingyas: Asean ministers for prosecuting the culprits
Southeast Asian foreign ministers have urged Myanmar to prosecute those responsible for the brutal military crackdown on Rohingyas and give full mandate to an inquiry commission to hold accountable those responsible for the violence in Rakhine. Keep reading ...
Why the UN has a genocide case on Myanmar
Even after taking part in past United Nations human rights investigations in Sri Lanka and North Korea, nothing quite prepared former Indonesian attorney general Marzuki Darusman for the harrowing stories of the Myanmar Army’s bloody 2017 rampage that killed more than 10,000 Rohingya Muslims and ...
