Lao Human Rights News
Agriculture billionaire Sun Dawu, who is currently standing trial in the northern Chinese province of Hebei on a slew of charges that rights activists say are politically motivated, was subjected to “cruel and inhumane treatment,” his defense team said. Sun, 67, is on trial at the Gaobeidian Municipal People’s Court amid unprecedented security that lawyers […]
Seven Lao Christians evicted from their homes in southern Saravan province in October for refusing to renounce their faith have returned to their village, but are being refused permission to rebuild homes demolished by authorities when they were first thrown out, RFA has learned. The seven, who are members of two families in the Pasing-Kang […]
Four Lao Christians have been held in jail for over three months in the country’s Khammouane province for planning funeral rites—an exercise of religious freedom deemed by village authorities to have violated Lao customs and “divided community solidarity,” Lao sources say. The four were arrested on July 3 in Khammouane’s Phousath village after traveling there […]
Washington, DC – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today released the following new country update on religious freedom conditions in Laos following a staff delegation to the country in February 2020: Laos Factsheet – This report provides a country update on religious freedom conditions in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. In […]
A Lao migrant who had been living in Thailand lost contact with his friends and relatives after visiting family in Laos last month, leading his contacts to suspect that Lao authorities might have abducted him over his involvement in a pro-democracy protest at the Lao embassy in Bangkok. Phetphouthon Philachane, 44, entered Vientiane on November […]
China has been the world’s worst abuser of internet freedom for the fourth consecutive year, while Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia were not far behind, according to a Freedom House report published Tuesday. In Freedom on the Net 2019: The Crisis of Social Media, the Washington-based independent watchdog organization evaluated 65 countries between June 2018 and […]
Authorities in Laos’ southwestern Champassak province have rescued four young Lao women and girls who were trafficked to China, while another group of four females from another part of the country remain missing, sources told RFA’s Lao Service recently. The teenagers and young women, now aged 16 to 21, were rescued in August. Several years […]
Asking for release ຮຽກຮ້ອງເພື່ອປ່ອຍໂຕ Miss Xayabouly HouayheuangArrested: Pakse, Champasak, LAOS on September 12, 2019Case: Freedom of Expression ນາງ ຮ່ວາຍເຮືອງ ໄຊຍະບູລີ (ນາງ ຫມວຍ ຫມູນ້ອຍ) ຖືກຈັບທີ່: ປາເຊ, ຈຳປາສັກ ວັນທີ 12 ເດືອນ 9, 2019 Lao Authorities Arrest Woman for Criticizing Flood Relief Efforts on Facebook A woman in Laos was arrested last week on charges of defaming the […]
Human Rights Watch calls for information on fate of 34-year-old amid a spate of disappearances of activists Rights groups in Thailand have urged the government to investigate the apparent enforced disappearance of Od Sayavong, a prominent pro-democracy activist from Laos who has been missing for almost two weeks. The 34-year-old Laotian activist was last seen […]
In 2018, religious freedom conditions in Laos trended the same as in 2017. It continued to be difficult to obtain and confirm details about religious freedom violations due to heavy govern-ment censorship and restrictions on freedom of information. Lao officials seek to control all perceived challenges to state authority and often characterize religious and ethnic […]