Tag: Human Rights Defenders
The Philippines: #iParticipate for Human Rights
Manila, Philippines – Asia 21 Young Philippine Leaders urged for stronger youth participation and more awareness on vulnerable groups in the Philippines at the discussion series #iParticipate: Youth Engagement for Human Rights held at the AIM Conference Center on Monday, December 2.
Anti-trafficking advocate John Piermont Montilla said young people...
Vietnam UN Rights Tribunal calls for release of Vietnamese lawyer
The detention of Vietnamese blogger, lawyer and human rights activist, Le Quoc Quan, has been condemned by a United Nations human rights tribunal as violating his right to freedom of expression and his right to a fair trial.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, a tribunal set up under...
The Philippines: Lacson’s appointment as rehab czar, Bonafos promotion worry human-rights advocates
THE human-rights watchdog Karapatan on Saturday scored the appointment of former Sen. Panfilo Lacson as rehabilitation czar and the promotion and designation of Maj. Gen. John Bonafos who was recently appointed Armed Forces of the Philippines’s Central Command chief.
In a statement, Karapatan Secretary-General Cristina Palabay expressed fear that the...
Japan’s PM Urged to Raise Case of Missing Lao NGO Leader
Rights groups have asked Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to raise concerns about disappeared Lao civil society leader Sombath Somphone at an upcoming regional summit, saying Tokyo and other international donors should push for an independent probe if Laos continues to drag its feet on the case.
Abe should urge...
The Philippines: Killing of journalists a nat’l catastrophe
Radio journalist Rogelio Butalid lies dead outside the Radyo Natin station in Tagum City after being shot by a lone gunman on Wednesday. Butalid (inset) was also a village councilor. FRINSTON LIM/INQUIRER MINDANAO
An international human rights watchdog has urged President Aquino to declare the deadly attacks on Filipino journalists...
12 Journalists Killed in the Philippines This Year, Says Human Rights Watch
With the murder of a radio journalist in the Philippines Wednesday morning, a total of three journalists have been killed and one wounded in a spate of deadly attacks in the country over the last two weeks and 12 in 2013 overall. The most recent incidents mark an uptick...
Thailand: New Cover-Up in Lawyer’s ‘Disappearance’
(New York) – The Thai government needs to account for missing documents in the case of the enforced disappearance and presumed murder of a prominent Muslim human rights lawyer nearly a decade ago, Human Rights Watch said today. On March 12, 2004, Somchai Neelapaijit was pulled from his car...
US ‘deeply concerned’ over Laos activist fate
The United States has said it is "deeply concerned" that the fate of one of Laos' most prominent social activists is still unknown, one year after he was abducted from a police checkpoint in Vientiane.
The abduction of Sombath Somphone, 61, at a busy traffic junction in the Laotian capital...
UN Tribunal Condemns the Vietnamese Government for Its Arbitrary Detention of Journalist and Lawyer Le Quoc Quan
Last week, a United Nations Rights Tribunal condemned the Vietnamese government for the arbitrary detention of Le Quoc Quan, a prominent lawyer, blogger, and human rights activist who has been imprisoned since December 27, 2012. EFF submitted a petition in March of this year with 11 other advocacy groups calling on...
Lao PDR: The Sombath crisis has implications for ASEAN
Editorial Opinion
It reads like fiction straight from a Colin Cotterill novel. The setting is Vientiane, capital city of the People's Democratic Republic of Laos.
Sombath Somphone is a gentle and unassuming man aged 63. Married to a Singaporean, Dr Ng Shui Meng, a former senior Unicef official, Mr Sombath was...
