archives

Human Rights

This category contains 16 posts

Jailed Vietnamese civil society leader wins award, boosting calls for his release

Mongabay, 1 August 2025: On the fourth anniversary of his imprisonment, Vietnamese environmentalist Dang Dinh Bach, who was sentenced to five years on tax evasion charges, has been recognized with a prestigious international award. The 46-year-old was officially presented the Roger N. Baldwin Medal of Liberty in July by the president of the U.S.-based organization … Continue reading

‘Everyone deserves a chance’: happy ending to home search

AFTER 172 house inspections and countless unsuccessful applications, 36-year-old Amanda Parker and her kids have signed the lease of a four-bedroom rental property in Huntly.Bendigo Advertiser, June 28, 2024 Read more ‘You are Enough’: Hope for end to housing struggles Amanda Parker’s disability pension and lack of a ‘rental ledger’ has seen the Bendigo mother … Continue reading

Red-carded Australian miner signals intention to play on in Greenland

Mongabay 12 July 2021: An Australian mining company hoping to build a vast open-cut rare earths and uranium mine on a mountain in southern Greenland has told shareholders it will persist with the project despite the mine having been rejected by the people of the Arctic nation. Publicly listed Greenland Minerals Limited has been working to develop … Continue reading

Water mission

IT WAS around 40 degrees in Kerang, northern Victoria, when Ruslan Shakin jogged into town pushing a pram one Tuesday afternoon in January.The 38-year-old Russian, who lives in Los Angeles, was approximately 3000km into a 4300km journey from Perth to Sydney, which he deliberately embarked on in the hottest months. “I wanted to feel the thirst,” … Continue reading

Environmental Defenders Under Pressure Across Southeast Asia

The Diplomat, 6 September 2018: A recent regional forum addressed the “global crisis” of killings and abuses linked to land. A lack of U.S. engagement is contributing to a “declining, dictatorial and more dangerous environment” in Southeast Asia, where the abuse of fundamental rights is increasing alongside the killing of land activists, Human Rights Watch … Continue reading

‘If it’s going to kill us, OK, we’ll die’: Villagers stand firm as Cambodian dam begins to fill

Mongabay 18 October 2017: On Sept. 25, amid a continuing crackdown on media, political opposition and civil society described by commentators as “a slide into dictatorship,” Prime Minister Hun Sen officially launched Cambodia’s biggest hydropower project. At the ceremony the gates were closed on the $800 million Lower Sesan 2 dam, a joint venture between China’s … Continue reading

A rising chorus of voices condemns Laos’ planned Pak Beng dam

Mongabay 2 June 2017: A damning review of plans for the controversial Pak Beng hydropower dam on the Mekong River in Laos was released this week by US-based advocacy group International Rivers, adding weight to calls for the project to be halted until new impact assessment studies are completed. The report follows recent criticisms of … Continue reading

Banks turn a blind eye to human rights abuses in Borneo

Crikey, 12 May 2017: On a Tuesday morning in June last year, Sarawak land rights activist and opposition politician Bill Kayong pulled up at a set of traffic lights in the coastal city of Miri, and was shot dead through the driver’s window of his Toyota pickup. The alleged “mastermind” of the assassination was Stephen … Continue reading

Laos pushes ahead with Pak Beng dam

Mongabay, 8 February 2017: The Pak Beng dam is the third of nine mainstream dams planned for the Mekong in Laos, and the second in a cascade of six on the country’s upper stretch of the river. At the Happy Bar, on the bank of the Mekong River, the Bob Marley mixed tape starts up … Continue reading

The Killing of Dr Kem Ley

New Matilda, 25 July 2016: A funeral procession of more than a million people, organisers said, accompanied the coffin of slain activist Kem Ley through Phnom Penh on Sunday as his body made the journey from the pagoda where it had lain in state for two weeks back to his home town in the provinces. … Continue reading