Lao Human Rights News
TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Taiwan is upgrading a fleet of American-made fighter jets, but may scrap ambitions to acquire the more advanced F-35 models, showing the limits of U.S.-Taiwan military cooperation despite a common interest of resisting China. The Air Force should get its first four upgraded F-16 A/B fighter jets in early 2019. The upgrades […]
(Brussels) – The European Parliament and the European Council should postpone the ratification of the proposed EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement until the Vietnamese government takes concrete steps to improve its increasingly abusive human rights record, Human Rights Watch said today. In Vietnam’s latest move to restrict rights, a new draconian cybersecurity law went into effect […]
On the night of July 23, water poured over a saddle dam at the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy (PNPC) hydropower project in Champassak, Laos, sweeping away homes and causing severe flooding in up to 12 villages downstream in Champassak and neighboring Attapeu province. More than 40 villagers were killed and dozens were listed as missing, […]
Civil society groups say govt toll of about 40 is not credible, that 800 or more people could have died in July; while Korean MP claims the firm building the dam altered the design and lowered the height to boost its profit The official death toll given by the government of Laos for the dam […]
VIENTIANE (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A new land law may bring greater transparency in land management and modernization of records in Laos, but it could also curb ownership by women, as well as the customary rights of rural and indigenous people, analysts said. The long-delayed legislation is scheduled to be tabled before the country’s National […]
Lao police shut down a benefit concert this week held to raise funds for a local school after objecting to a slogan found on T-shirts sold at the site, Lao sources said. The concert, held on Oct. 14 in the Kaysone district of Savannakhet province in southern Laos, had run for only 40 minutes before […]
A judge in Myanmar, on Monday, found two Reuters journalists guilty of unlawfully possessing state secrets, sentencing them to seven years in prison, in a decision that is widely considered to be retribution by the government for the pair’s reporting on the killing of 10 Rohingya men and boys by state security forces. The case […]
Wimbledon School of English has announced the opening of the first British English language centre in Laos, WSE Vientiane, in partnership with Panyathip International School. The agreement between WSE and Panyathip was signed in August 2018 between WSE managing director Jane Dancaster and founder and director of Panyathip International School, Pathana Panyathip. The signing was […]
The Lao government’s offer of U.S. $176 to the families of the 40 Laotians confirmed to have perished in flooding caused by a dam collapse in the southwestern part of the country last month is not sufficient, a retired health official said Tuesday. Families have been offered 1.5 million Lao kip (U.S. $176) for each […]
A coalition of NGOs and community-based groups dedicated to raising public awareness about the risks associated with dams on the Mekong River said Friday that it will boycott the prior consultation process for the proposed Pak Lay hydropower project in Laos. “Save the Mekong coalition is boycotting the Pak Lay prior consultation because serious and […]