Lao Human Rights News
Lao villagers displaced by flooding from a dam breach last year are facing hardships in temporary resettlement areas, with clean water hard to find and toilets unusable, and some are moving back to their former land to make a living, Lao sources say. On July 23, 2018 water poured over a saddle dam at the […]
Is Laos on the edge of an economic boom, or a bust? Six of the 11 countries in Southeast Asia have an external debt higher than the developing world average of 26 percent of gross national income, according to a report last year by FT Confidential Research, an independent research service from the Financial Times. […]
President Trump has tapped a Tufts University alum to serve as the next ambassador to Laos. In a statement Tuesday, the White House said Trump will nominate Peter M. Haymond as ambassador to the southeast Asian nation, officially named the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Haymond’s a Foreign Service lifer. The statement described him as “a […]
The issue of property rights looms large as part of various issues that the Southeast Asian country and its people are contending with. When, on July 23 last year, an auxiliary dam of the Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy hydropower complex in southern Laos collapsed, the torrent unleashed rolled through tens of kilometers of land, even gushing […]
A true elimination of the problem will only come with broader political change in the country. Is Laos’ ruling communist party building up to an anti-corruption campaign similar to the ones we’ve seen in China and Vietnam? Since Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith came to power in early 2016, more officials have been dismissed because of […]
It is an archaeological mystery that has perplexed scientists for decades: which ancient civilisation carved huge stone jars for disposing its dead at sites across Laos? Thick jungle, war and unexploded bombs have helped keep the secret, but new Australian-led research has offered tantalising clues. Experts believe the jars are related to an ancient burial […]
The U.S. State Department downgraded Vietnam and Cambodia to its next-to-lowest ranking in an annual report on human trafficking released today, pointing to what it called both countries’ continuing failure to make “significant efforts” to combat the trade. The Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report ranks countries around the world as Tier 1, Tier […]
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 […]