Sivanxai Phommalath

Last updated

Sivanxai Phommalath is a vegetable vendor who became an activist in Laos. [1] She was jailed for protesting the Government of Laos seizing her land for development. [2] [3]

Contents

Biography

Sivanxai Phommalath was a small vegetable vendor who sold vegetables grown in her own garden by her house in Yommalath district, Khammuane province, Laos. She was married with one child. The government of Laos decided to build Nam Theun II dam in Yommalath district to generate hydroelectricity. Her home and land was expropriated by the Government of Laos, like many of her neighbors. Those with connections to the government were able to secure good compensation, which Phommalath was not able to do. She received 900 dollars for her land and the government said that it was enough to cover another piece of land she owned near the site. She demanded fair compensation that was market price of the land.

After Phommalath was not given fair compensation for her land, she tried to organize a protest near the border of Thailand, which did not work. No one showed up at the meeting place on a bridge over the Mekong River. Once her group arrived home, they were arrested and imprisoned in Thamkhikai. [4] The police accused her of causing public disturbance and was asked to name the government official she meant to meet at the border which she did not know. After one night in jail, the other villagers were released but Phommalath was not set free. Still, she was also not charged or sentenced. She was held in this prison for nearly three months before being fined 700,000 kips (88 dollars) and then released. [5] After being released from jail, she decided to fight the government and settled down on her second plot, building a house and paying property taxes. [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human rights in Saudi Arabia</span>

Human rights in Saudi Arabia are a topic of concern and controversy. Known for its executions of political protesters and opponents, the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been accused of and denounced by various international organizations and governments for violating human rights within the country. An absolute monarchy under the House of Saud, the government is consistently ranked among the "worst of the worst" in Freedom House's annual survey of political and civil rights and was in 2023 ranked as the world's most authoritarian regime.

Kerry Arthur Danes and wife Kay Frances Danes née Stewart were imprisoned in Laos as civilians on 23 December 2000 and later convicted of embezzlement, tax evasion and destruction of evidence. They were ordered to pay fines and compensation of $AUD1.1 million.

Human rights in Thailand have long been a contentious issue. The country was among the first to sign the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and seemed committed to upholding its stipulations; in practice, however, those in power have often abused the human rights of the Thai nation with impunity. From 1977 to 1988, Amnesty International (AI) reported that there were whitewashed cases of more than one thousand alleged arbitrary detentions, fifty forced disappearances, and at least one hundred instances of torture and extrajudicial killings. In the years since then, AI demonstrated that little had changed, and Thailand's overall human rights record remained problematic. A 2019 HRW report expanded on AI's overview as it focuses specifically on the case of Thailand, as the newly government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha assumes power in mid-2019, Thailand's human rights record shows no signs of change.

Bahareh Hedayat is an Iranian activist and campaigner for women's rights. She was one of the activists who worked on the One Million Signatures campaign to change laws that discriminate against women in Iran. She has been arrested and imprisoned several times.

Houayheuang "Muay" Xayabouly is a Laotian environmental and human rights activist. She is currently serving a 5 year prison sentence for criminal defamation and distributing anti-state propaganda. Her case has been taken by journalists as characteristic for the repressive climate of Laos's regime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ni Yulan</span> Chinese human rights activist (born 1960)

Ni Yulan is a civil rights lawyer in the People's Republic of China. She has established herself in defending human rights in China by providing legal aid to persecuted groups such as Falun Gong practitioners and victims of forced eviction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Narges Mohammadi</span> Iranian human rights activist (born 1972)

Narges Mohammadi is an Iranian human rights activist. She is the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), headed by her fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Shirin Ebadi. Mohammadi has been a vocal proponent of mass feminist civil disobedience against the hijab in Iran and a vocal critic of the hijab and chastity program of 2023. In May 2016, she was sentenced in Tehran to 16 years' imprisonment for establishing and running "a human rights movement that campaigns for the abolition of the death penalty." She was released in 2020 but sent back to prison in 2021, where she has since given reports of the abuse and solitary confinement of detained women.

Dissidents have been detained as political prisoners in Saudi Arabia during the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s and earlier. Protests and sit-ins calling for political prisoners to be released took place during the 2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests in many cities throughout Saudi Arabia, with security forces firing live bullets in the air on 19 August 2012 at a protest at al-Ha'ir Prison. As of 2012, recent estimates of the number of political prisoners in Mabahith prisons range from a denial of any political prisoners at all by the Ministry of Interior, to 30,000 by the UK-based Islamic Human Rights Commission and the BBC.

Yorm Bopha is a Cambodian land rights activist noted for her opposition to development around Boeung Kak lake. She was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for "intentional violence with aggravating circumstances" on 27 December 2012, leading several human rights groups to protest on her behalf.

Agnes Kharshiing is a women's rights activist from Meghalaya, India. She is the President of the Civil Society Women's Organization (CSWO).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leyla Yunus</span> Azerbaijani activist (born 1955)

Leyla Islam qizi Yunusova, better known as Leyla Yunus, is an Azerbaijani human rights activist who serves as the director of Institute of Peace and Democracy, a human rights organisation. She is particularly known for her work helping citizens affected by forced evictions in Baku, on whose behalf she organized several small protests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loujain al-Hathloul</span> Saudi activist (born 1989)

Loujain al-Hathloul is a Saudi women's rights activist, a social media figure, and political prisoner. She has been arrested on several occasions for defying the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia. In May 2018, she and several prominent women's rights activists were kidnapped in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and deported to Saudi Arabia where they were charged with "attempting to destabilise the kingdom." Her ex-husband, Saudi stand-up comedian Fahad al-Butairi, had also been forcibly returned from Jordan to the Kingdom and was under arrest.

Cấn Thị Thêu, 54, is an activist in Vietnam. She became a activist of Dương Nội, a village outside of Hanoi, after marrying a local farmer. Thêu is known for her work in documenting land seizures and mobilization for the returns of lands and fair compensation from local authorities. On 20 September 2016 she was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment by The People's Court of Đống Đa District in Hanoi on charges of “Disturbance public order”. Thêu is a "prisoner of conscience".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mother Mushroom</span> Vietnamese blogger and dissident

Mother Mushroom is the pen name of the Vietnamese blogger and dissident, Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh. Mushroom or Nấm in Vietnamese is the name of her daughter. She first used the pen name in her popular blog "Mẹ Nấm".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zheng Churan</span> Chinese womens rights activist

Zheng Churan is a Chinese women's rights activist and feminist. Together with four other activists, she was detained, in March 2015, shortly before events planned for International Women's Day. They are collectively known as the Feminist Five. In November 2016, she became one of the BBC's 100 Women 2016.

Trần Thị Nga is a human rights defender from Hà Nam Province, Vietnam. She was arrested on January 21, 2017 by Vietnamese security police. Nga is member of Vietnamese Women for Human Rights. She also blogs under the pen name Thuy Nga and is known for capturing and hosting videos of police brutality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tep Vanny</span> Cambodian human rights activist

Tep Vanny is a prominent land rights activist and human rights defender, leader and creator of Boeung Kak 13, an activist group that has led peaceful protests since 2008 against the Cambodian government leasing land to the Shukaku corporation, which has led to the forcible eviction of almost 20,000 people in the region of Boeung Kak Lake in Phnom Penh. Her arrest and detention sparked an international campaign asking for her release.

Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee or Golrokh Iraee is an Iranian writer, accountant, political prisoner and a human rights defender who advocates against the practice of stoning in Iran. As a religious prisoner of conscience she was represented by Vice Chair of the USCIRF Gayle Manchin.

Su Changlan is a Chinese civil rights activist, who has worked in particular on women's rights, from Foshan, Guangdong, China.

Trần Thị Xuân is a Vietnamese environmental activist who was sentenced to nine years in prison due to her affiliation with Brotherhood for Democracy, a pro-democracy group in Vietnam.

References

  1. ↑ "RFA launches new edition of Asian women's e-book". BBG. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  2. ↑ Slaughter, Anne-Marie; Liu, Libby (9 March 2015). "A Lesson From Asia's Unsung Female Activists". Time. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  3. ↑ Asia, Radio Free (2014). 'It's not OK.': The illustrated stories of women caught in the struggle for human rights in China, North Korea, and Southeast Asia. Radio Free Asia. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
  4. ↑ Antoine, Catherine. "Sivanxai Phommalath (Laos) — Women in Human Rights". www.womensrights.asia. Retrieved 2020-02-29.
  5. ↑ Antoine, Catherine. "Sivanxai Phommalath (Laos) — Women in Human Rights". www.womensrights.asia. Retrieved 2020-02-29.
  6. ↑ Antoine, Catherine. "Sivanxai Phommalath (Laos)". www.womensrights.asia. Women in Human Rights. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.