Human rights in Laos
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Laos |
 This article is part of the series: |
|
|
|
Other countries · Atlas Politics Portal |
The situation of human rights in Laos has often been and remains being recognized as a cause for concern.
U.S. State Department reports on human rights around the world declare that most Lao trials in 2003 were little more than pro forma examinations of the accused, with a verdict having already been reached. The State Department indicated that in some instances, police administratively overruled court decisions, at times detaining a defendant exonerated by the court, in violation of the law. Moreover, while Lao law prohibits torture, members of the security forces reportedly subjected prisoners to torture and other abuses. A significant issue in human rights in Laos is the presence of anti-government rebels, mainly of the Hmong ethnic minority, who have reportedly been harshly treated by the Lao government. In the report for 2006 the State Department mentions that "The government's overall human rights record worsened during the year". For more details see the report (link given below under "see also").
The government of Laos has stated that they released two leading dissidents in October 2004 yet international groups, including Amnesty International, report that no independent confirmation can be made that these individuals have, in fact, been released. [1]. Amnesty has indicated concerns for their health due to pre-existing conditions not treated during their imprisonment, and reportedly poor conditions at the camps where they were held. They had been convicted in 1992 and sentenced to 14 years. A third dissident sentenced with them died in prison in 1998.
In 2004, a Lao Hmong refugee photographed then smuggled video footage out of Laos, of an alleged incident in which Lao government troops raped and murdered four young Hmong girls and one boy, then mutilated their bodies [2]. He denies claims on the part of the Lao government that the video was a fabrication.
[edit] See also
- US State Department report on human rights in Laos 2006
- Amnesty International Annual Report 2007
- Censorship in Laos
 |
This human rights-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
|
||||||||
