<div>Five years after the abduction of the prominent, internationally acclaimed Lao development worker Sombath Somphone by Lao state agents, the Lao government has done very little to find the truth, experts said. Meanwhile, the enforced disappearance of Sombath has raised debates about the Lao government’s ambition to boost its economy through development projects, while it continues to suppress civil rights.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>15 December 2017 marks five years since Sombath was last seen by his family. </div>

<p dir="ltr">Thai authorities have requested Lao PDR to extradite a group of five to six Thais for producing radio programmes deemed defamatory to the Thai Monarchy, even though this would be forbidden under the extradition treaty.</p> <p></p>

<p dir="ltr">The Thai government has asked Laotian authorities to deport Thais wanted for lèse majesté.</p> <p dir="ltr">On 31 January 2017, Gen Thawip Netniyom, Secretary-General of the National Security Council, <a href="http://www.matichon.co.th/news/446635">announced to media</a> plans to travel to Laos to seek cooperation from the country’s government in monitoring the activities of certain Thai nationals.</p> <p dir="ltr">A group of five to six Thais residing in Laos are producing radio programs deemed defamatory to the Thai Monarchy, said Thawip.</p>

<p>The&nbsp;<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.hrw.org/asia/laos&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1481855949437000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEh02e8dmnG2-4oiAoAD10BZIzIJg" href="https://www.hrw.org/asia/laos" target="_blank">Lao</a>&nbsp;government has made no progress accounting for civil society leader Sombath Somphone, who was forcibly disappeared on December 15, 2012, Human Rights Watch said today. Four years after he was stopped at a police checkpoint in the capital, Vientiane, the government needs to provide information on his fate or whereabouts.<br /></p>

<div><span>The 3rd Parliamentary Delegation to visit Lao PDR during 25-7 August over the enforced disappearance last December of noted activist Sombath Somphone reported in a press conference at the FCCT that there was no new information, with the official investigation going nowhere and the Lao government still in denial.</span></div> <p></p>

<p>Today, 61 Thai Civil Society groups send an emergency letter to top officials in Vientiane, Lao PDR to request an emergency investigation on the disappearance of Mr. Sombath Somphone, a high-profile Lao citizen, who has reportedly been missing since approximately 5 pm on Saturday, December 15 in Vientiane.<br /></p>

<p>Bangkok, 11 December - The Lao People's Democratic Republic on Friday expelled an expatriate development worker for criticizing the government in a letter to donors.</p>

<p>Geneva-Paris-Bangkok, 27 February 2012 - Although Laos has become a State party to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) since 1974, ethnic minority groups in the country continue to face discrimination and their basic rights and freedoms are subject to a range of limitations that are incompatible with Laos&rsquo; obligations under international law, said the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its member league the Lao Movement for Human Rights (MLDH).</p>

<p>(New York, December 22, 2011) &ndash; Authorities in Thailand forcibly handed over a registered refugee, Ka Yang, and his family to Laotian officials at the Thai-Lao border in Ubon Ratchathani province on December 17, 2011. The move violates international law, Human Rights Watch said today.</p>

<p>The massacre of 31 journalists in Maguindanao, the Philippines, on 23 November 2009, most graphically illustrates the violence and impunity that threaten journalists not only in the Philippines, but throughout the region.</p>