Land and River Grabbing: The Mekong’s Greatest Challenge

07-Land-and-River-Grabbing-2015 sm Throughout the Mekong region, large-scale development projects such as hydropower dams, mines, conventional power plants, and mono-crop plantations are displacing communities and limiting access to natural resources. Several hydropower dams have already been built on the Upper Mekong in China’s Yunnan Province, and the governments of Cambodia, Laos and Thailand are planning eleven additional large dams on the Mekong River’s mainstream. If completed, these dams would not only destroy local ecosystems, but also reduce the fl ow of silt throughout the Mekong River system, and block major fi sh migrations, placing at risk over sixty million people who depend on the Mekong for their food security and income […]

Trafficking in Persons Report 2015

BURMA: Tier 2 Watch List

Burma is a source country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and for women and children subjected to sex trafficking. Some Burmese men, women, and children who migrate for work abroad—particularly to Thailand and China, as well as ther countries in Asia, the Middle East, and the United States—are subjected to forced labor or sex trafficking. Men are subjected to forced labor in the fishing, manufacturing, forestry, and construction industries abroad, while women and girls are primarily subjected to sex trafficking, domestic servitude, or forced labor in garment manufacturing. NGOs report an increase in the number of Burmese males transiting Thailand en route to Indonesia and Malaysia, where they are subsequently subjected to forced labor, primarily in the fishing industry. Some Burmese men in the Thai fishing industry are subjected to debt bondage, passport confiscation, or fraudulent recruitment; some are also subjected to physical abuse and forced to remain aboard vessels in international waters for years. Reports indicate some Rohingya asylum seekers transiting Thailand en route to Malaysia are sold into forced labor on Thai fishing boats, reportedly with the assistance of Thai civilian and military officials. Burmese women are transported to China and subjected to sex trafficking and domestic servitude through forced marriages to Chinese men; Burmese government officials are reportedly occasionally complicit in this form of trafficking […]

Report Briefer: How to Defend the Defenders? A Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in Burma and Appropriate Protection Mechanisms

Testimonies and reports from inside the country have painted a very different picture to the new tolerant and free Burma that the Burma Government wants the world to see. Those who try to defend human rights, or question the power or narrative of the Burma Government — and their military and corporate backers —now seem to be operating in as dangerous an environment as ever […]

How to Defend the Defenders? A Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in Burma and Appropriate Protection Mechanisms

HRD Report Testimonies and reports from inside the country have painted a very different picture to the new tolerant and free Burma that the Burma Government wants the world to see. Those who try to defend human rights, or question the power or narrative of the Burma Government — and their military and corporate backers —now seem to be operating in as dangerous an environment as ever […]

FBR Report: June Update – Mali Yang Offensive Continues

On Saturday, 11 July the Burma Army and Burma Air Force launched an offensive near Mali Yang Village in northern Kachin State […]

Military Confrontation or Political Dialogue: Consequences of the Kokang Crisis for Peace and Democracy in Myanmar

The renewed violence in the Kokang region of the northern Shan state in February 2015 has had serious repercussions for efforts to solve ethnic conflict in Burma/Myanmar and end the decades-old civil war. The fighting started when troops led by the veteran Kokang leader Pheung Kya-shin (Peng Jiasheng) resurfaced in the Kokang region and attacked government and army positions after an interval of nearly six years […]

UN Resolution – Human Rights Situation of Muslims in Myanmar

Condemns the systematic gross violations of human rights and abuses committed in Rakhine State, in particular against Rohingya Muslims […]

Human Rights are Called Universal for a Reason – In English and Burmese

For many years in Burma, a person carrying a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights risked arrest and even jail. Underground human rights networks distributed copies and organised discussions on the articles it contained […]

KWO Six Months Summary of Human Rights Violations in Karen State: January to June 2015

The Karen Women’s Organization (“KWO”) collected information regarding continuing serious human rights abuses perpetrated by the Burma Army in all seven districts in Karen State from January to June 2015. Our data demonstrates that the Burma Army has taken advantage of the preliminary ceasefire to continue to commit serious human rights abuses, perpetrate direct attacks on civilians and expand its presence in Karen State […]

Kachin Region: War Torn Displaced Village Profiles

The country of Myanmar has been plagued by bitter experience of civil war and successive brutal regimes since the pre and post-independence era. The country gained independence from British colony in 1948 and a union of Myanmar was formed based on the principles enshrined in historic Panglong agreement signed by ethnic representatives from Kachin, Shan, Chin and Burmese. Karen and Mon started their ethnic armed struggle since pre-independence time […]