The post Final Hurdle cleared for Thailand’s first law to protect ethnic groups’ way of life first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

The government will use the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation (MLC) meeting this week to seek cooperation from neighbouring countries to address the problem of call centre scam gangs.

Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said he had instructed Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa to raise the issue with participating countries and explore effective strategies for dealing with cross-border crime, including tackling call centre scams. The 9th MLC meeting is scheduled for Thursday and Friday in Chiang Mai.

Mr Maris stressed that regional cooperation is crucial to solving transnational crime, which includes the narcotics trade, human trafficking and fraud. He said the governments of Laos, China and India have placed importance on transnational crime and agreed to enhance cooperation to address these issues.

Keep reading

The post Govt wants Mekong group to address scam gangs first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND — Hundreds of thousands of people are being coerced in Southeast Asia by criminal gangs into carrying out online scams, often under the threat of torture, the United Nations said Tuesday.

Many have been trafficked into working in online criminality and face serious violations such as torture or sexual violence, the UN said in a report.

“People who are coerced into working in these scamming operations endure inhumane treatment while being forced to carry out crimes,” UN human rights chief Volker Turk said.

“They are victims. They are not criminals.”

The scale of the scourge in Southeast Asia is difficult to gauge because of the practice’s clandestine nature and gaps in the response by authorities, the report noted.

Keep reading

The post UN Warns Thousands Trafficked into Online Crime in SE Asia first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

PHNOM PENH — Cambodian leader Hun Sen on Thursday cancelled a law he created just two months ago to protect critically endangered Mekong dolphins as the mammals continue to die from illegal fishing activities.

The population of Irrawaddy dolphins in the river Mekong has dwindled from 200, when the first census was taken in 1997, to just 89 in 2020 largely due to illegal fishing and habitat loss.

Hun Sen issued a new decree in February creating protection zones in a 120-kilometre (75-mile) stretch of the Mekong, in which fishing is banned, following the death of three dolphins in a week.

Conservationists have also stepped up efforts to protect the mammals — small, shy creatures with domed foreheads and short beaks that once swam through much of the river, all the way to the delta in Vietnam.

Keep reading

The post Cambodian Leader U-Turns on Rare Dolphin Conservation Law first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

As of last year, according to UN figures, there were nearly 80 unresolved cases of enforced disappearances in Thailand. Considering the country now has a law in place against enforced disappearances, in force since earlier in the year, how should we prevent and remedy these crimes?

Cases of enforced disappearances usually have three elements — the intent to deprive someone of their liberty (for example, by kidnapping); the involvement of state agents, or those who are under their authority; and the refusal to disclose the whereabout of the victim, whether dead or alive.

The task now is to search for victims of such crimes, and determine whether there were additional actions relating to the mistreatment of the victims which constitute a violation of the law and/or human rights. In Thailand, the main mechanism for dealing with enforced disappearances has been the UN Working Group of Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, which is under the United Nation’s Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Keep reading

The post Ratify enforced disappearance pact now first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

The number of internally displaced people (IDPs) surpassed 1.8 million in war-ravaged Myanmar on June 12, 2023, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Prior to the February 2021 military coup, the estimated number of internally displaced people was 328,000. They were in Kachin, Rakhine, Karen, Shan and Chin states.

Between February 2021 and June 2023, another 1.5 million people in seven states and four regions were displaced by the civil war.

They account for 82 percent of the more than 1.8 million internally displaced people in Myanmar.

Keep reading

The post Number of IDPs in Myanmar Has Surged Above 1.8 Million first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

The post Myanmar Military Court Sentences Ex-Publisher to Five Years for Sedition first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

The United States and United Nations has criticised Vietnam’s detention of a prominent climate activist, saying such actions were part of a broader trend towards curbing free speech.

Hoang Thi Minh Hong, the founder of now-defunct NGO CHANGE, which aimed to tackle some of the country’s most urgent environmental issues, was taken into custody in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday.

“The United States is concerned by the detention of leaders and staff of CHANGE, including the ongoing detention of CHANGE’s founder Hoang Thi Minh Hong,” Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement on Friday.

“We call on Vietnam to respect the rights of those detained and to respect and protect the freedoms of expression and association for all Vietnamese people,” Miller said.

Keep reading

The post US, UN slam arrest of prominent Vietnamese environmental activist first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

A fear-cloaked dynamic has increasingly percolated Vietnam’s information environment, in both cyberspace and the mainstream media.

A decree guiding the controversial Cybersecurity Law, which took effect in October 2022, looks to further empower Vietnamese authorities to censor online content they disfavour and bolster the state’s digital surveillance capacity. This regulatory move is just one of the latest in a spate of laws and regulations that reflect Hanoi’s attempt to exert ever-tighter controls over the digital space.

The heyday of Vietnam’s critical journalism in the 2000s was short-lived. In 2008, an unprecedented state-sanctioned crackdown on the press led to the arrest of two Vietnamese investigative journalists and the dismissal of the editors-in-chief of Tuoi Tre and Thanh Nien — the two most influential newspapers.

The authorities never clearly articulated their rationale for the crackdown, but it was likely because mainstream media crossed a line in its coverage of corruption. As the authorities lack the wherewithal to punish every single transgressor, their strategy of choice has been to kill the chicken to scare the monkey — a tactic that seems to be working.

Keep reading

The post Climate of fear engulfs Vietnam’s mainstream media first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

A court in Cambodia on Thursday sentenced 36 senior officials of the banned Cambodia National Rescue Party, most of whom have already fled the country, to between five and seven years in prison.

The opposition officials were convicted of supporting party Vice President Mu Sochua in her plan to return to Cambodia from the U.S. as part of what the court said was a conspiracy to overthrow the government.

The CNRP had been the country’s main opposition to Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party until late 2017. The Supreme Court dissolved the party after it made substantial gains in local communal elections.

Keep reading

The post Cambodia sentences 36 opposition officials to prison terms on conspiracy charges first appeared on Open Development Mekong.