Lao Human Rights News
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 […]
A court in Vietnam on Tuesday upheld jail terms for three human rights campaigners convicted on charges of conducting anti-state activities after producing and distributing videos which were critical of the country’s ruling Communist party and its leaders. Vu Quang Thuan, Nguyen Van Dien and Tran Hoang Phuc were convicted in a one-day trial at […]
Massive but orderly protests across the country hint at the beginning of the end of Communist Party rule “You can jail a revolutionary, but you can’t jail the revolution.” —Huey Newton, American activist and communist revolutionary On June 7, a group of about 300 ordinary Vietnamese in Phan Ri Cua City of Binh Thuan province […]
An increasing number of poor urban North Koreans are abandoning their homes and moving to remote mountains to avoid forced mass mobilizations and mandatory contributions to the regime of leader Kim Jong Un, sources inside the country said. “There is an increasing number of people who have recently abandoned their homes and are living deep […]