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Lao PDR’s ruthless crackdown on critics strips Lao human rights defenders from basic human rights.
#FreedomOfExpression ⚖️ Lao PDR’s ruthless crackdown on critics strips Lao human rights defenders from basic human rights.
🗣 Leaders in authoritarian states such as Lao PDR know that their power cannot exist in a society with a strong, independent civil society and media. For this exact reason, Lao human rights defenders, critical agents of change for democracy, are the prime targets of the Lao government’s harassment, intimidation and prosecution campaigns.
📣 Houayheuang ‘Muay’ Xayabouly, Joseph Akaravong, Od Sayavong, Lodkham Thammavong, Somphone Phimmasone and Soukan Chaithad are a handful of the many Lao HRDs who bravely spoke up against the government and faced harsh repression as a result.
🚨 Lao PDR’s highly severe treatment of political prisoners involves numerous cases of arbitrary arrests, torture and even enforced disappearances which largely contribute to the country’s grim human rights records.
#WeAreManushyan ♾ Equal Human Beings
✊ Manushya stands in complete solidarity with all Human Rights Defenders and calls on the Lao government to immediately proceed to their release! Lao PDR must comply with its international human rights obligations and allow the existence of a peaceful civil society! 🇱🇦
While you are here...
➡️ Find out more about Manushya Foundation’s our campaign to #FreeMuay from jail:
#Freemuay from jail in Laos: Campaign to Free Lao woman human rights defender Ms. Houayheuang Xayabouly (Muay) and stop the human rights violations against her.
➡️ Find out more about Manushya Foundation’s previous work on Laos:
News release: Laos must undertake transparent and independent investigation to ensure effective remedies for the victims of the am collapse – and Thailand should also bear responsibility, 20 August 2018;
Statement of the Thai Business & Human Rights Network on the Lao Dam Collapse, 20 August 2018;
Manushya Foundation's Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights on the situation in Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR), March 2019;
Joint Submission with the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) to the UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) for Lao PDR Third UPR Cycle, 21 July 2019;
Joint Statement: One year after Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy dam collapse, civil society from Korea and the Mekong call for immediate accountability and redress, 23 July 2019;
Manushya’s Foundation UPR Factsheet to inform Lao PDR’s Third UPR: Overview of the Human Rights Situation in Lao PDR - Legal Framework, Challenges, Case Studies & Community-led UPR Recommendations, January 2020;
News release: Nam Theun 1 Dam: Responsible Govts & Companies Must Ensure Safety of Communities living nearby!, 22 August 2022.