Thai court rejects government’s bid to amend constitution in new blow to ruling party
BANGKOK — Thailand’s top court has rejected the ruling party’s attempt to amend the constitution, dealing a political defeat to the government.
But, the Constitutional Court’s Wednesday ruling turned down a request from the government’s opponents to dissolve the ruling party.
The ruling follows another political setback to Prime Minister Yingluck...
Singapore and the death penalty
Singapore’s approach to combating drug trafficking has traditionally entailed the use of capital punishment. According to Amnesty International, over the last two decades Singapore has hanged hundreds of people – including dozens of foreigners – for narcotics offences. So it was a pleasant surprise for many last Thursday morning...
Malaysia: Don’t be blindly engrossed with human rights, says Jamil Khir
Being blindly engrossed with human rights as espoused by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights may cause discordance in the society, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom.
He said certain quarters ignored universal values as they had more faith with the Universal Declaration of...
Cambodia: Report Blames Tycoon for Major Forest Destruction
PHNOM PENH - Local human rights groups have identified 1,400 families who have been forcibly evicted from their land by a single business tycoon and his company.
The Cambodia Human Rights Task Force, a consortium of groups, said in a report Wednesday that Try Pheap, a powerful logging tycoon, has...
Rights Group Slams ‘Rampant Impunity’ in Cambodia
A Cambodian rights group said Wednesday that impunity is on the rise in Cambodia, hitting out at the authorities for failing to resolve a number of high-profile killings and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Ahead of International Day to End Impunity on Saturday, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR)...
BURMA: Free all human rights defenders and stop ongoing arbitrary arrests and imprisonment
Paris-Geneva, November 20, 2013. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, an FIDH-OMCT joint programme, welcomes the latest release of human rights defenders who were among the political prisoners detained in Burma/Myanmar, and now urges the Government to immediately and unconditionally release all those who remain detained...
Nine More Months in Jail for Unrelenting Myanmar Activist
An imprisoned Myanmar activist has been jailed for nine more months as he fights off charges in at least seven townships in the commercial capital Yangon for protesting against a controversial public assembly law and against land grabs.
Htin Kyaw had already been convicted in some of the townships and...
UN tells Myanmar to quell Buddhist attacks on Rohingya Muslims
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. - The United Nations General Assembly's human rights committee passed a resolution urging Myanmar to give the stateless Rohingya minority equal access to citizenship and to crack down on Buddhist violence against them and other Muslims in the southeast Asian country.
The resolution, passed by consensus Tuesday,...
Rights Groups Call on ASEAN to Implement New Declaration on Eliminating Violence Against Women and Children in Accordance with International Standards
Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists called on members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to increase efforts to protect the rights of women and children in light of the newly adopted Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women and Elimination of Violence against...
Regional conference on policing in Southeast Asia calls for human rights-based policing
Civil society activists and human rights lawyers from Indonesia, Malaysia , the Philippines, Thailand and Timor-Leste are demanding effective accountability mechanisms to deal with police abuse in their countries. The weaknesses of current mechanisms have contributed to a culture of impunity allowing for human rights violations by law enforcement...
