Social development
Human rights
Activist groups look to next government to solve human rights abuses
Activists marked International Human Rights Day on 10 December by setting an agenda for the next government. Land rights topped the list in an online poll for rights and business priority issues conducted by the Institute for Human Rights and Business, a co-founder of the Myanmar Centre ...
Human Rights Day protest stays peaceful
Close to 2,000 people, including monks, NGO workers and citizens, marched peacefully to the Ministry of Justice on 10 December morning, defying City Hall’s ban on the Human Rights Day protest. Demonstrators from 16 different provinces marched from three separate locations – the Senate, Chenla Cinema and ...
Human Rights Day marches gathering steam despite gov't obstacles
Authorities in Siem Reap on 9 December blocked a march celebrating International Human Rights Day (IHRD), as officials in Phnom Penh reiterated their threat to shut down a planned mass rally in the capital on 10 December. As IHRD, officially on 10 December, approaches, associated demonstrations across ...
Myanmar comes under renewed pressure to ratify key human rights treaties
Myanmar has come under renewed pressure to lift itself from the bottom rung of countries to have ratified key international human rights treaties. Speaking at an event in Yangon yesterday to mark International Human Rights Day, Andrew MacGregor, a senior official from the Office of the ...
Prison outreach day ‘stymied’
A prominent local rights group has been forced to abandon its annual International Human Rights Day (IHRD) events in Cambodia’s prisons for the first time in 20 years because of “prohibitive” conditions imposed by the government, it said on 6 December. In a statement, Licadho said ...
Polish activist not among prisoners to be pardoned in Laos this year
A Polish citizen of Lao heritage jailed in Laos for criticizing the government online will not be among hundreds of prisoners granted pardons by the end of the year because he “does not meet the proper criteria,” according to a public security official. Lao authorities arrested ...
Thailand printers refuse to print New York Times cover story
The New York Times’ printer in Thailand has refused to print one of its articles, leaving a blank space on its cover page. The article, titled “Thai spirits sagging with the economy”, discussed the country’s flagging economy and touched on royal succession concerns. The printer withheld an ...
Conservative Buddhists donate to Kachin IDPs
Hard-line nationalist Buddhist monk U Wirathu has revealed that his Committee for the Protection of Race and Religion, known as Ma Ba Tha, is providing aid to displaced Christians in war-ravaged Kachin State. Ma Ba Tha said it had donated K6 million for internally displaced persons ...
UN document: Thailand 'knew' Chinese deportees were refugees
The government knew two Chinese men it detained were refugees awaiting resettlement in Canada, but still deported them to China, according to a United Nations letter seen by Reuters. The letter, sent by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ...
Rape victims failed by corrupt system: report
Countless rape victims, many of them children, have been failed by widespread flaws in Cambodia’s justice system, which have led to a “disturbingly low” number of convictions, a new study by the rights group Licadho has found. In its report, Getting Away With It: The Treatment ...
