The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) calls on the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) to ACT NOW against increasing human rights violations in the region.
In Lao, the government remains calloused to calls from the international community to surface Sombath Somphone, a 2005 Ramon Magsaysay awardee for Community Leadership who disappeared on 15 December 2012, exactly 18 months today. The Lao People’s Democratic Republic signed the Convention Against Enforced Disappearance (CED) on 29 September 2008. It also ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) on 25 September 2009.
Le militant des droits de l’home Sombath Somphone est porté disparu depuis décembre 2012
Un rapport présenté le 10 juin dernier aux Nations Unies dénonce les violations persistantes des droits de l’homme au Laos. Parmi les nombreux exemples cités par l’organisation Human Rights Watch, la disparition du militant Sombath Somphone a été qualifiée de « particulièrement inquiétante ».
Le Laos, loin d’avoir progressé dans le domaine des droits de l’homme, a encore reculé, uge dans un rapport très critique Human Rights Watch (HRW). Le gouvernement poursuit ses restrictions des libertés fondamentales d’une façon drastique, justifiant l’attention de la communauté internationale.
Parmi les « faits particulièrement inquiétants », soulignés par Phil Robertson, directeur pour l’Asie de HRW, restent les disparitions inexpliquées de Sombath Somphone en décembre 2012 et de l’écologiste Sompawn Khantisouk, porté disparu depuis sa convocation au poste de police en janvier 2007. Sur ces points, comme sur toutes les questions touchant les droits de l’homme, « les autorités laotiennes défient la communauté internationale en refusant de répondre à ses inquiétudes légitimes concernant les nombreuses disparitions inexpliquées et autres abus qui se multiplient dans le pays ».
Le Laos sera pour la seconde fois sur la sellette lors de l’examen périodique universel (EPU) (1) qui se tiendra en octobre prochain devant le Conseil des droits de l’homme des Nations Unies à Genève. Selon l’ONU, le gouvernement laotien n’a pas respecté les engagements pris lors de la précédente session de l’EPU en 2010. Le pays devait, entre autres, ratifier les conventions internationales concernant les droits de l’homme, mettre fin aux restrictions concernant la liberté d’expression, d’association et de réunion, garantir la liberté de la presse et mettre en conformité sa législation du travail avec les standards de l’Organisation internationale du travail (OIT). Continue reading “Le gouvernement accusé de bafouer les droits de l’homme”
Laotian activist Sombath Somphone has been missing since 2012.
The Laos government routinely oppresses citizens, stifles basic human rights, and acts with impunity, Human Rights Watch said in a critique issued this week. The organization blasted the Southeast Asian country’s leaders for restricting “fundamental rights including freedom of speech, association, and assembly.” The critique concerns Laos’ failures to live up to recommendations issued in a 2010 Universal Periodic Review. The country is up for another review in October, and HRW believes the last UPR did not address critical areas, including “enforced disappearances; freedom of speech, association, and assembly; the treatment of detainees in drug detention centers; and labor rights.”
The critique notes the tight control the state exerts over the media, and a culture of self-censorship. News programs that encourage debate and discussion of hot-button rights issues are at risk of being shut down, and activists live with the real threat of harm and kidnapping.
Urgently End Disappearances, Systematic Suppression of Basic Freedoms
Sombath Somphone, a social activist, was last seen in Vientiane, the capital, in December 2012. There is strong evidence that he was forcibly disappeared by Laotian authorities.
The government of Laos has failed to address the country’s systemic human rights problems, Human Rights Watch said today in a critique of Lao’s human rights record submitted to the United Nations. Laos will appear for the country’s second Universal Periodic Review in October 2014 at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Human Rights Watch highlighted several human rights issues that deserve international attention, including severe restrictions on fundamental liberties, absence of labor rights, and detention of suspected drug users without charge in abusive drug centers. Of particular concern is the forced disappearance of civil society leader Sombath Somphone, in Vientiane in December 2012 after he was stopped by the police, and of an environmentalist, Sompawn Khantisouk, who has been missing since he was ordered to report to a police station in January 2007.
“The Lao authorities are defying international concerns by ignoring calls to respond to the enforced disappearance of activist Sombath Somphone,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director. “Concerned governments need to drive home the point that they will not sit complacently by as disappearances and other abuses multiply in Laos.” Continue reading “Laos: No Progress on Rights”
The committee in charge of the case will continue to investigate and collect information, check and verify the information sources and collect information from individuals and organisations from within the country and abroad in accordance with its mandates and duties.
…At the end of 2012 the Lao authorities kidnapped one of the countries most prominent NGO leaders, Sombath Somphone, without a murmur in Laos, and without any sense that they should be accountable. Since then the NGO sector has been frozen with fear.
…In a society of hyper-politicization one becomes apolitical, and that includes foreigners too.
The letter I write to you was provoked by an initiative on Facebook. I think this is much in your spirit since I remember you speaking enthusiastically about the use of Internet (Google maps) by young students together with village elders in projects in the rural area. I still remember your inspiring presentation on a VSO workshop in Vang Vien in 2011. Your very personal approach appealed to me and I remember your, for me unexpected, reaction to some of my critical questions. We were the only two people in the room with some grey hairs and you received my comments with the remark that you were very happy with a more critical note since you were critical at heart yourself, but the only way to get things done was to remain optimistic.
I have tried to keep that lesson in mind since I heard of your disappearance, but I must say it becomes more and more difficult as time passes. Presently I work as an agricultural advisor in the Prisons of Malawi and I hope to be able to contribute a little to the situation of people in custody here in Africa. Let me end with pronouncing the hope that you will we a free man soon and assuring you that many people keep up the spirit of your attitude toward development for the poor since you inspired them.
The European Union and Laos have held the fifth round of their annual Working Group Human Rights and Governance meet in Brussels, a statement issued by the 28-member European bloc said Wednesday. The EU delegation was led by Anette Mandler, acting Director for Human Rights and Democracy in the European External Action Services. The Lao delegation was led by Phoukhong Sisoulath, Director General, Department of Treaties and Law, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Lao PDR Representative to the AICHR, Secretary-General to the Lao National Steering Committee on Human Rights. “It provided an opportunity to express concerns about the implementation of international standards in Laos and in the EU. It also allowed for a constructive exchange of experience about how to translate such standards into domestic practice,” the statement said.
The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) calls on the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) to ACT NOW against increasing human rights violations in the region.
