Author: rsbtws

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Sombath Receives Gwangju Special Award for 2015

May 18 Memorial FoundationGwangju Human Rights Award Committee has also selected Sombath Somphone of Laos who is the founder of the Participatory Development Training Center in Vientiane as a recipient of Special Award of 2015.  Sombath Somphone has over more than 30 years worked vigorously and tirelessly empowering and training the youth of Laos, promoting quality education, and ecologically sustainable development especially in poor rural communities. Unfortunately, he was disappeared right in front of a police post on December 15, 2012. His abduction was recorded on the police surveillance camera (CCTV) and has been seen by many people all over the world.

The authorities of Laos have denied any involvement in his disappearance. The May 18 Memorial Foundation has decided to launch the campaign to urge the Lao Government Authorities to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation to find him and return him safely to his family and to the global community.

We hope this Special Award will contribute to raising awareness of his disappearance and finding his whereabouts and bringing him back to his family as soon as possible.

From Gwangju Prize for Human Rights Recipient Decision Letter from the May 18 Memorial Foundation.

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Help pressure the Lao PDR to accept the UPR recommendations!

Get InvolvedAt the Universal Periodic Review for Laos in January, 19 nations* raised the issues of enforced disappearance and ratifying the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforce Disappearance, with ten of these addressing Sombath’s case directly.

This show of support is unprecedented, yet real impact will only be achieved if the Lao government accepts and follows through on these recommendations.

Please help to press your government in urging the Lao government to do just that.

See this Letter the Sombath Initiative is sending to all 19 countries’ mission to the United Nations in Geneva. The text of each recommendation is included in the letter, and contact information for all missions can be found here.

Below are the recommendations for those ten countries specifically mentioning Sombath in graphic format. Please share them among friends, colleagues and on social media. Thank you for your support!

*Our sincere apologies. There were 20 countries. Brazil recommended that the Lao PDR should:

121.24. Ratify the ICPPED and adopt implementing legislation, as well as mechanisms to independently investigate and identify perpetrators of those crimes (Brazil);

UPR Recommendation-Australia

UPR Recommendation-Canada

UPR Recommendation-Finland

UPR Recommendation-Germany

UPR Recommendation-Luxembourg

UPR Recommendation-Poland

UPR Recommendation-Portugal

UPR Recommendation-Sweden

UPR Recommendation-United Kingdom

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Vietnamese Civil Groups Raise Freedom of Religion, Expression at ASEAN Forum

Ahead of the next APF in 2016, the forum’s organizing committee has not decided whether to hold the meeting in Laos, which will assume chairmanship of the 10-member ASEAN coalition next year, because civil society groups from the region are concerned about the safety of human rights defenders in the country.

Radio Free Asia: 24 April 2015

ACSC:APF-2015
Thida Khus, executive director of Cambodian NGO Silaka, addresses the ASEAN Peoples’ Forum in Malaysia, April 22, 2015. Photo courtesy of Silaka

Freedom of religion and expression topped the areas of discussion for Vietnamese civil groups attending forums on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Malaysia Friday, during which they engaged with their counterparts and government officials from the region.

The ASEAN People’s Forum (APF) is being held on April 21-24 to provide civil society groups with a platform to address the organization’s leaders through workshops on various rights issues alongside the ASEAN Summit of Heads of State.

One young Vietnamese presenter, Nguyen Anh Tuan, told RFA that she attended the seminar because she wanted to convey how poor Vietnam’s rights record is compared to other nations in the region and discuss ways to improve it.

“Based on what I know, the human right abuses in Vietnam exceed other countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand,” she said.

“During this session, I will try to prove that the human right abuses in Vietnam are systematic and not limited to some areas. They are everywhere and include freedom of religion, expression, information and association.”

At the People’s Forum on freedom of religion, Vietnamese presenters displayed photos of religious leaders, including Mennonite pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh and Catholic priest Ngo The Binh of Tam Toa church, who have been harassed and beaten. Continue reading “Vietnamese Civil Groups Raise Freedom of Religion, Expression at ASEAN Forum”

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Activists, politicians call for protection of human rights at ASEAN forum

Asian Correspondent: 24 April 2015

By 

Azmin Ali
Malaysian politician Azmin Ali. Pic: AP.

Discussions about human rights and civil society’s role in the ASEAN community took center stage at the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/People’s Forum in Kuala Lumpur this week. More than 1,000 people gathered at the conference, which began Tuesday and ends today.

Former Malaysian Foreign Minister Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar gave the keynote address on the first day of the conference. He argued for a review of the ASEAN’s stance on non-interference, saying there are limits to its usefulness in international diplomacy, “especially when the serious impacts of a problem goes beyond national boundaries, or when it involves serious international crimes.”

Malaysian politician Azmin Ali also criticized the non-interference policy in a speech to the forum: “[O]n this altar of neutrality, we watch with folded arms, the slaughter of innocent women and children,” he said, referring to incidents in Burma (Myanmar) and Laos among others. “On this platform of non-interference, we turn blind eye to the massacre of ethnic minorities or abandon them as state-less people.” Continue reading “Activists, politicians call for protection of human rights at ASEAN forum”

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Lao Civil Society Pressured to Drop Rights Issues From ASEAN Forum

Radio Free Asia: 22 April 2015

ACSC:APF-2015
Thida Khus, executive director of Cambodian NGO Silaka, addresses the ASEAN Peoples’ Forum in Malaysia, April 22, 2015. Photo courtesy of Silaka

Civil society organizations in Laos are under pressure to omit key concerns from a list of regional human rights issues to be raised on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Malaysia this week and “fear for their safety” if they attempt to do so, a CSO official said Wednesday.

The groups dare not raise the concerns during the April 21-24 ASEAN Peoples’ Forum (APF)—intended to provide civil society with a platform to address ASEAN leaders—because they fear retribution for criticizing government policy, the CSO official told RFA’s Lao Service.

“[The CSOs] will talk mostly about gender roles only, but not other issues such as land rights, the impact of hydropower dams … and enforced disappearance, because they are afraid for their safety,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official said the majority of authentic CSOs in Laos “do not want to attend the forum,” especially those which focus on human rights issues, but that the Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of the Interior had persuaded other “irrelevant” organizations to go in their place. Continue reading “Lao Civil Society Pressured to Drop Rights Issues From ASEAN Forum”

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Civil Society speaks on Sombath

ACSC-APF2.2.3 States and non-state actors continue to commit violations with impunity, including police brutality, torture and enforced disappearances, against civil society activists. For example, the lack of immediate and transparent investigation into the case of Sombath Somphone[3] by ASEAN governments, the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), or any other human rights mechanisms in the region. Human rights defenders continue to be persecuted under oppressive laws, including laws against activities as “injuring the national unity”, “propaganda against the State“, “abusing democratic freedoms” and sedition laws, which deny the people safe and constructive political space.

[3] Sombath Somphone, an internationally acclaimed community development worker and prominent member of Lao civil society, went missing on 15 December 2012, when police stopped his vehicle at a checkpoint in the capital. He was then transferred to another vehicle, according to police surveillance video, and has not been heard from since. Reports say that the Lao government continues to deny responsibility for his disappearance.

From Reclaiming the ASEAN Community for the People, the CSO Statement for the 2015 ACSC/APF.

For Para. 2.2.3, on page 2 the sentence containing the individual name of Sombath Somphone and the related footnote must be completely deleted because in any statement we just point out the fact and suggest recommendation and for avoiding unwilling or detrimental consequences, we never put in the name of individual nor we name of specific country. Furthermore, in LAO PDR few people know Sombath Somphone. He is known as a simple Lao citizen and as a development worker, but not prominent as pretended in the footnote. He has established a none registered Association. He does not elected as leader of Lao CSOs. The facts are there.

…This is the determinate voice of Lao people concerning ASEAN CSOs STATEMENT. Once again the People of LAO PDR hope that the sentence of multi-Party and pluralistic system and the other sentence with the individual name of Sombath Somphone, the word LGBTIQ and also all the footnotes shall be deleted or erased from the final Statement prior submission to the high level ASEAN LEADERS during the interface event.

From a resolution allegedly resulting from a meeting of Lao CSOs held on 10-11 March, 2015.

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Dear Sombath…from Somchit (2)

Dear Uncle Sombath,

Today we made merits for you as well to blessed us all for the fresh Lao new year. Wherever you are i wish you received our pray and the food we offer in spirits. We did the ceremony at the wooden house that you bought just couple months before someone disappeared you. I remember very well this house and the rice hut, you said you were very very proud you found it, they are old that the owner wanted to tear it down and you want to preserve it. I never thought before that I will have to work on this house for you, moving them in pieces all the way from Savannakhet province and rebuild in Vientiane capital. It was my very first time in my life to build a house, and I always wish that you could come back and tell me what I should do with these old pieces of woods.

I sometimes thought whether it’s worth to work on them, but I manage to finished them at last, with some adaptation. For nearly 2 years that it’s done, we never use it, and not many people see the house attractive because it’s typical Lao house. But to me, I always say to myself that this house is lovely. I love looking at it and it make me smile inside. For me it’s symbol of you, your taste and happiness. Hope you will get to come back to see it by yourself soon. Jit