• Laos: Investigate ‘Disappearance’ of Prominent Activist
    Dec 20, 2012
    The Lao government should urgently investigate the feared forced disappearance of Sombath Somphone, a prominent social activist.
  • Drug Detention Centers Offer Torture, Not Treatment
    Jul 23, 2012

    Hundreds of thousands of people identified as drug users in China and across Southeast Asia are held without due process in centers where they may be subjected to torture, and physical and sexual violence in the name of “treatment.” International donors and United Nations agencies have supported and funded drug detention centers that systematically deny people rights to effective HIV and drug dependency treatment, and have ignored forced labor and abuse.

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Laos

  • Laos: Investigate ‘Disappearance’ of Prominent Activist
    Dec 20, 2012
    The Lao government should urgently investigate the feared forced disappearance of Sombath Somphone, a prominent social activist.
  • Civil Society Denounces Adoption of Flawed ASEAN Human Rights Declaration
    Nov 19, 2012
    Disregarding the deep concerns expressed by senior United Nations officials, human rights experts and hundreds of civil society and grassroots organisations at the national, regional and international levels, ASEAN leaders nonetheless adopted yesterday an “ASEAN Human Rights Declaration” that undermines, rather than affirms, international human rights law and standards.
  • Drug Detention Centers Offer Torture, Not Treatment
    Jul 23, 2012

    Hundreds of thousands of people identified as drug users in China and across Southeast Asia are held without due process in centers where they may be subjected to torture, and physical and sexual violence in the name of “treatment.” International donors and United Nations agencies have supported and funded drug detention centers that systematically deny people rights to effective HIV and drug dependency treatment, and have ignored forced labor and abuse.

  • Laos: Clinton Should Urge End to Abuses at Drug Center
    Jul 9, 2012

    United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should call for the immediate release of detainees at the Somsanga drug detention center in her meeting with Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong. Clinton is scheduled to visit the Lao capital, Vientiane, on July 11, 2012. 

  • ASEAN: Ensure Declaration Meets Rights Standards
    Jul 8, 2012

    Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should make a public commitment to ensure that the forthcoming ASEAN Human Rights Declaration will fully comply with international human rights standards. 

  • Donors Should Not be "Partners in Crime" with Rights Abusers
    Jun 24, 2012
  • Betraying human rights, ASEAN style
    May 14, 2012

    This past week in Bangkok, the ASEAN Inter-government Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) discussed one of the most important documents drafted by ASEAN since the regional grouping adopted the ASEAN Charter five years ago.  

  • ASEAN’s road to nowhere?
    Apr 26, 2012
    In July, the ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Phnom Penh will receive one of the most important documents drafted since the adoption five years ago of the ASEAN Charter.
  • Laos: Drug Users, ‘Undesirables’ Detained, Abused
    Oct 10, 2011
    Police and local militia in Vientiane, the capital of Lao PDR, are forcibly detaining people who use drugs in a so-called treatment center where they risk beatings and other abuse, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Homeless people, street children, people with mental disabilities, and others deemed “undesirable” are often detained in the center as well, Human Rights watch said.
  • ASEAN: Reject Burma as Regional Group’s Chair
    May 5, 2011
    Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should reject Burma's request to chair the regional grouping in 2014 until the Burmese government takes genuine steps towards improving human rights, including the release of more than 2,000 political prisoners.
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