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#CESCR: From Silencing to Global Accountability ✊ A Victory for Lao HRDs!
- Manushya Foundation
- 17 hours ago
- 4 min read
For years, human rights defenders (HRDs) and communities in Laos have been silenced for speaking truth to power through intimidation, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, and violence. Their struggles were ignored, denied, or deliberately erased.
Today, many Lao HRDs continue this struggle from exile, facing transnational repression through surveillance, threats, intimidation of family members, and cross-border attacks aimed at silencing their advocacy. These patterns of repression are not separate from economic, social, and cultural rights violations: they are the very tools that enable land grabs, forced displacement, environmental destruction, and the denial of Indigenous Peoples’, workers’, and women’s rights.
In August 2025, Manushya Foundation, together with our partner Power by Keyboard, refused to let that silence stand. We submitted a bold CESCR Report to the United Nations, exposing systemic violations of economic, social, and cultural rights in Laos.
We also travelled to Geneva to engage in strategic UN advocacy, directly lobbying Committee members for strong, legally binding recommendations that advance the rights of all people in Laos.
On 26 September 2025, for the first time ever, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights issued Concluding Observations on Laos.
What the State has long denied is now officially recognised, placed on the UN record, and brought before the world.
Shrinking Civic Space & Repression of Human Rights Defenders
Laos does not recognise or protect HRDs. Instead, they are branded as “enemies of the State” and systematically targeted for raising concerns about corruption, land grabbing, and harmful development projects. HRDs face persistent harassment, intimidation, and arbitrary detention; many have been subjected to enforced disappearance, while others have lost their lives. This pervasive climate of fear suppresses dissent, weakens civic space, and denies communities the ability to defend their land, environment, and fundamental rights.
Repression in Laos: #JusticeForJack
Anousa “Jack” Luangsuphom was shot multiple times in Vientiane on 29 April 2023 after publicly advocating for democracy and exposing Chinese investment and monopoly over Laos.
Although he survived due to urgent medical intervention supported by Manushya, more than two years later, no accountability has followed. The Lao authorities continue to withhold information, and those responsible remain unpunished.
Disappearance in Laos: #WhereIsSombath
Sombath Somphone was last seen on 15 December 2012, when he was stopped at a police checkpoint in Vientiane and taken away in a truck, as captured on CCTV. He has not been seen since. More than thirteen years later, the Lao authorities have provided no answers, no accountability, and no genuine investigation.
This is not an isolated incident: Disappearances continue in Laos
On 2 February 2024, Chilikham disappeared after collecting his passport in Southern Laos to attend the 11th Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development in Bangkok. His whereabouts remain unknown.
In July 2024, Thao Bua Sawan Prommachan publicly protested corruption and dictatorship in front of the UN centre in Vientiane. He was arrested by police and has since vanished without a trace.
To this day, not a single case of enforced disappearance in Laos has resulted in accountability.
Transnational Repression: Repression does not stop at borders, and exile does not mean safety.
#JusticeForBounsuan – In May 2023, Bounsuan Kitiyano, a Lao refugee recognised by UNHCR and a member of the Free Laos democracy movement, was shot dead in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand. Targeted for his activism against human rights abuses in Laos, he was forced into exile and lived in hiding in Thailand. He was killed just days before his resettlement to Australia.
#JusticeForJoseph – After exposing corruption and forced evictions linked to the dam disaster, Joseph Akaravong was forced to flee Laos in summer 2018. He was hidden in Thailand until he could be resettled in France, in March 2022. On 14 June 2025, he was brutally attacked in Pau, France, a stark example of transnational repression carried out thousands of kilometres from home.
Exposing and Resisting Repression
Manushya’s Founder, and Executive Director, Emilie Palamy Pradichit, and Lao woman HRD, Nanthida Phoumichit, travelled to Geneva ahead of Laos’ CESCR review to lobby Committee members and bring the voices of Lao HRDs directly before the CESCR Committee.
From Silencing to Obligation
Thanks to our lobbying and the courageous voices of HRDs in our CESCR report, these abuses were formally acknowledged by the CESCR Committee.
In a powerful response, the CESCR Committee expressed deep concern over intimidation, arbitrary arrest and detention, enforced disappearance, extrajudicial killing, and repression, including transnational repression, targeting those defending economic, social and cultural rights.
The Committee now calls on Laos to:
Strengthen protection for HRDs and their families
End impunity by promptly, effectively, and impartially investigating, prosecuting, sanctioning, and remedying all violations against HRDs
Stop using laws as weapons to repress HRDs, who are indispensable to the realisation of economic, social, and cultural rights
The courage of HRDs has transformed silencing into international accountability.
Global Monitoring Confirms Civic Space in Laos is “Closed”
This growing recognition is now echoed beyond UN mechanisms. The reality faced by HRDs in Laos, as documented in our report, is reflected in recent findings by the CIVICUS Monitor, highlighting systemic restrictions on freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly, alongside ongoing impunity for enforced disappearances, transnational repression and attacks against defenders. This growing convergence of international monitoring reflects increasing recognition that repression in Laos is structural, leaving those who speak out exposed to serious risks without meaningful protection.
Beyond Repression: More of Our Issues Were Reflected in the COBs
The Concluding Observations also reflect several other issues we raised in the report and include our recommendations on the rights of communities affected by business activities and development projects, Indigenous Peoples’ rights, corruption, anti-discrimination, gender equality, labour rights, human trafficking, poverty, access to healthcare, and the right to education.
To explore the full range of community-led victories, read the full Concluding Observations.
Stand in Solidarity with Us and Courageous HRDs
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