FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contacts: Yujung Shin (+82 010 8452 0108, yjshin@jihyanglaw.com) Pillkyu Hwang (hopenvision@naver.com) or Youngah Park (mashil049@gmail.com) Emilie Pradichit (emilie@manushyafoundation.org) Joint statement in Thai On July 23, 2018, the auxiliary dam (Saddle D) of the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydroelectric power project in Laos collapsed, killing 71 people, displacing thousands, and flooding homes and villages….
Read MorePRESS RELEASE | UN Working Group Finds Imprisonment of Vietnamese Climate Leader, Dang Dinh Bach, Arbitrary and Calls for His “Immediate and Unconditional Release”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 19, 2023 MEDIA CONTACT: v4climateleaders@gmail.com International Coalition of Climate Justice and Human Rights Organizations to Launch Peaceful, Solidarity Hunger Strike Campaign with Bach May 24 – June 24 and Echo Call for Immediate Release from Prison The UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention just released an opinion regarding the…
Read MorePak Lay and Luang Prabang dam Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs): Who benefits?
By Pianporn Deetes and Gary Lee As media attention focused on the dissolution of the parliament to prepare for the upcoming national election, news that a Power Purchase Agreement with Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) was signed for the Pak Lay dam slipped by without making much of a ripple. Gulf Energy, a Thai…
Read MoreFree-flowing Salween River needs protection
Originally posted in the Bangkok Post By Pianporn (Pai) Deetes, Thailand and Myanmar Campaigns Director of International Rivers This morning at Sob Moei — the confluence of the Moei and the Salween rivers on the Thailand-Myanmar border — indigenous peoples and their supporters are attending a spiritual ceremony to express their collective stance to protect…
Read MoreBCG Economy and Apec: Just empty rhetoric?
Originally published in the Bangkok Post By Pai Deetes The Apec Leaders’ Summit in Bangkok this week includes an agreement to work toward the “Bangkok Goals” on Bio-economy, Circular Economy and Green (BCG) Economy beyond national borders. Many have raised have raised the question of whether the Thai government, as host to the summit, genuinely…
Read MoreGeopolitics are not accounting for local communities
Originally published in Centre on Asia and Globalisation Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy’s newsletter Guest Column by Pianporn Deetes is Regional Campaigns Director, Southeast Asia Program at International Rivers Whatever the geopolitics of hydropower brings to the Mekong River, the people living alongside it must have a greater say in its future development….
Read MoreCourt dismissal of Xayaburi dam lawsuit highlights the need to strengthen accountability of cross-border investments
By Phairin Sohsai and Gary Lee On 17 August, the Thai Supreme Administrative Court ruled to dismiss a lawsuit, filed by 37 Thai villagers against five Thai state agencies for their role in approving the Xayaburi hydropower dam’s Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). Filed 10 years ago, the Xayaburi lawsuit was the first community-filed lawsuit related…
Read MoreMekong environmental leader Niwat Roykaew wins prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize
By Pai Deetes, Regional Campaigns and Communications Director, Southeast Asia Program Today, Niwat Roykaew of Chiang Khong Conservation Group is a recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize, for a momentous win for the Mekong River where the Thai Cabinet formally called for the cancellation of the Lancang-Mekong Navigation Channel Improvement Project, known as the Mekong…
Read MoreNam Ou River Cascade Hydropower Project
By International Rivers originally published in The People’s Map of Global China Nam Ou River, Lao People’s Democratic Republic The Nam Ou River Cascade Hydropower Project comprises seven dams, with a combined generating capacity of 1.27 GW. The cascade includes two phases. Phase One has been fully operational since October 2016 and Phase Two since…
Read MoreInternational Hydropower Association’s Greenwashing of Nam Theun 2 Dam’s Impacts on Indigenous Peoples
by Bruce Shoemaker and Ian G. Baird A newly released article by the International Hydropower Association (IHA), titled “Laos: Hydropower built in consultation with Indigenous communities” by Eduard Wojczynski, holds up the Nam Theun 2 (NT2) hydropower project as a positive example of benefit-sharing for Indigenous communities. The article is presented as a case study…
Read MoreToday is a ‘Day of Action for Rivers’
Two decades of indigenous peoples working to keep the Salween River free-flowing By Pai Deetes, Thailand and Myanmar Campaigns Director of International Rivers Originally published in the Bangkok Post On a sandy beach by the Salween River on the Thai-Myanmar border in March 2006, boats carrying Karen villagers and other ethnic groups such as Karenni,…
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