Thailand

Now is the right time to get serious about climate change. Many countries including Thailand have signed the Paris agreement which sets a common goal in keeping the global temperature to rise lower than two degrees Celsius. While the countries around the world have announced their intention to stop using coal in the near future yet the number of coal-fired power plants are going up and booming particularly in Southeast Asia region. Likewise in Thailand, we can see that energy and coal-fired power plants have been one of the boiling topics circulating in mainstream media in the past few years.

Internet users in Southeast Asia are confronted with a heavily regulated environment in which there are more restrictions being placed on freedom of expression. Despite technological advances, societies undergoing political transitions, such as Indonesia, Myanmar, and Thailand, have yet to enjoy the full democratic potentials of a free and independent media. Instead of top-down reforms for the media, these countries need policies that prioritize the public’s interests. Only with the meaning public’s meaningful participation of civil society can these reforms become sustainable while  supporting democratization.

Organic food production is still a niche market in ASEAN countries, yet one on the rise. Health and ecological concerns have brought sustainable farming methods including small-scale and organic farming back to the table. This article takes a look at new strategies of sustainable food production in ASEAN with perspectives from Thailand, Myanmar, and Singapore.

Representatives of indigenous Karen communities in Myanmar this week filed a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand alleging human rights violations resulting from the activities of Thai companies operating an open-pit coal mine. The Ban Chaung mine has polluted the air and water, harmed the livelihoods of local people, and led to the illegal seizure of agricultural land, among other harmful impacts, according to the complaint.

While Europe worries about trafficking and the so-called refugee crisis, Thai villagers are still building their hopes on women’s migration and labor abroad.

A small school in the Northeast is setting an example in adhering to Thailand’s human rights obligations seeing its Lao pupils become student leaders. But another 200.000 migrant children are left without access to country’s education system, reports Mingkhawan Thuemor, a participant of The Isaan Journalism Network Project.

Are Southeast Asia’s national human rights institutions protecting anyone? A report by James Gomez and Robin Ramcharan gives a bleak assessment.

In early 2015 the Thai military government announced to establish various Special Economic Zones in border areas. There, the military uses its absolute powers to secure disputed plots for investment.