After 2011, Myanmar engaged in a semi-controlled path to democracy and many Burmese migrant workers returned home to set up businesses, thanks to the skills and capital they acquired while working abroad. But the recent coup has disrupted this [...]Read the full article
While some governments, development funders and business groups in South and South-East Asia are pushing for the increased use of incinerators to manage waste, informal workers are making their objections known – not only for environmental reasons but also because of the negative impact on waste [...]Read the full article
Fisherfolk in eastern Thailand have taken up the role of citizen scientists to document the long-lasting impacts of what is believed to be the biggest oil spill in the history of the country, and to obtain compensation from those [...]Read the full article
The construction of the Rasi Salai dam across the Mun River in the mid-1990s caused the flooding of 16,000 hectares of land and brought an abrupt end to a three-century-old way of life. Today, thousands of families are still fighting for compensation for the loss of their land, ecological [...]Read the full article
Beyond its health repercussions, the coronavirus pandemic is making it even harder for Indigenous people in many parts of Asia to defend their civil and land rights, with governments and companies taking advantage of the pandemic to brush them [...]Read the full article
The fishing industry is one of the world’s most violent. With demand exploding and owners looking to cut costs, cases of forced labour on fishing vessels are multiplying.Read the full article
While eating insects is nothing new in Thailand, breeding them is a relatively recent phenomenon that dates back to 1997. Insect farming carries both the benefits of limited environmental impact and employment opportunities for women in rural areas, as well as the looming risk of increased [...]Read the full article
Thirteen-year-old Anucha Tasako died last November in a boxing ring in a suburb of Bangkok. Like many Thai children, Tasako was a Muay Thai boxer, the favourite sport in a country where the debate on the protection of minors has only just [...]Read the full article
Activists from Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, amongst others, are calling for an end to educating schoolchildren with texts that portray women as subordinate and LGBTI people as abnormal.Read the full article
Rather than addressing this threat, governments across the region are either complacent, or using the state apparatus to further control information.Read the full article
After decades of trying to put an end to overfishing, several species of tuna are still at risk of extinction. The industry is now trying to improve traceability and is using certification, but there are still many shadows on the [...]Read the full article
In Thailand, people with HIV/AIDS are disowned by their families and abandoned to their fate. The Phra Baht Nam Phu temple is their last refugeRead the full article
Jyrki Raina:Trade union repression, enshrined in the law and carried out by employers, has led Thailand to have the lowest unionisation rate in Southeast Asia, at 1.5 per centRead the full article
For women, particularly those from once self-sufficient mountain peoples, the commercialisation of traditional crafts is amongst the most accessible options for work. Still, precarious, per-piece income from embroidery and other crafts barely keeps up with growing monetisation of the villagers’ [...]Read the full article
Owen Tudor:The TUC and ITUC joined nearly 100 human rights NGOs and trade union organisations in 20 countries to insist that the Thai Natural Fruit Company drop its case against Andy HallRead the full article