We write on the occasion of the forthcoming 9th Australia-Laos Human Rights Dialogue scheduled to take place in November 2025 in Vientiane.
The single-party, authoritarian government of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Laos) systematically restricts fundamental civil and political rights, including freedom of speech, association, and peaceful assembly. It also participates in quid pro quo "swap mart" agreements with neighboring governments that have facilitated rights abuses against its nationals across its borders and vice versa, also known as transnational repression.
In the Australia-Laos Human Rights Dialogue, Australia should raise human rights issues in an unambiguous manner, set clear benchmarks for improvement, and publicly share the outcome of the dialogue.
Human Rights Watch recommends that Australia focus on the Laos government's involvement in transnational repression and attacks against critics of the government during the upcoming Human Rights Dialogue.
Transnational Repression
The term "transnational repression" describes efforts by governments to silence or deter dissent by committing human rights abuses against their own nationals or members of the country's diaspora outside their territorial jurisdiction. Human Rights Watch has documented several cases over the past decade that suggest the Lao government has engaged in quid-pro-quo agreements with neighboring countries, colloquially known in the region as "swap mart" arrangements, to target dissidents and critics.
Targets of transnational repression are often Lao dissidents who have sought safety in neighboring Thailand. On May 17, 2023, unidentified assailants shot and killed the exiled political activist Bounsuan Kitiyano in Si Mueang Mai district of Ubon Ratchathani province in northeastern Thailand, near the Lao border. The local police investigation indicated that Bounsuan was shot multiple times while riding alone on his motorcycle on a rural road. A Thai military intelligence official told Human Rights Watch that it was "clearly a professional killing" and dismissed local police speculation that Bounsuan was killed by relatives unhappy with his political activities. Bounsuan was a recognized refugee with the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) and was in the process of applying for resettlement in Australia. Prior to his killing, he had been involved in several protests in front of the Lao embassy in Bangkok calling for respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. Bounsuan was a member of Free Lao, a human rights group that, like many other Lao civil society organizations critical of the government, has long faced intimidation from the Lao authorities.
Another Free Lao activist and refugee, Od Sayavong, disappeared in Bangkok in August 2019, shortly after he and other Free Lao members, including Phetphouthone Philachanh, met with Philip Alston, the then-UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights and an Australian international human rights law scholar. Od had played a central role in a demonstration held outside of the Lao embassy in Bangkok on July 16, 2019, calling for the release of Free Lao members imprisoned in Laos. Phetphouthone Philachanh also disappeared on November 14, 2019, after reportedly returning to Laos. He had been the last person to see Od before his disappearance.
Thai dissidents and critics who fled to Laos have also been targets of transnational repression. The government of Laos has not conducted impartial investigations into the killings of Thai activists Surachai Danwattananusorn, Chatcharn Buppawan, and Kraidej Luelert in December 2018. Thai authorities recovered the mutilated bodies of Chatcharn and Kraidej from the Mekong River, but Surachai has not been found. Surachai had fled to Laos in 2014 to escape charges brought against him for lese majeste (insulting the monarchy) and accusations by the then-Thai military junta regarding his involvement in anti-government militia groups. Thai authorities had repeatedly urged Laos to hand Surachai over prior to his disappearance.
The Lao government has also failed to investigate the abduction of Thai activist Wuthipong Kachathamakul in July 2017. Ten armed men dressed in black had assaulted Wuthipong outside of his house in Vientiane according to multiple witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch. The assailants also attacked Wuthipong's wife and friend. The three were hit and shocked with stun guns, then blindfolded and gagged. Wuthipong was then put in a car and driven away to an unknown location while his wife and his friend were left at the scene, and has been missing since. According to Wuthipong's wife and friend, the assailants were speaking among themselves in Thai.
Wuthipong had operated a community radio network affiliated with the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship - known as the "Red Shirts" - in Thailand's Pathum Thani province, and was known for his anti-monarchy stance. Thai authorities had accused him of using his radio program to call for the use of violence, and repeatedly requested that the Lao government arrest and extradite him. In 2014, he fled to Laos to escape lese majeste (insulting the monarchy) charges and accusations that he was plotting with anti-government militia groups to assassinate former Prime Minister Gen. Prayut Chan-ocha. While in exile in Laos, Wuthipong continued to broadcast online radio programs in which he strongly criticized both military rule in Thailand and the Thai monarchy. Itthipol Sukpaen, another exiled Thai activist who broadcasted anti-monarchy radio programs from abroad, vanished in Vientiane in June 2016.
In September 2023, Laos summarily deported prominent Chinese lawyer and human rights defender Lu Siwei to China in violation of the international law principle of nonrefoulement, which prohibits the return of anyone to a place where they would face a real risk of persecution, torture, or a threat to life. He had been enroute to the United States to join his family. His forced return, in light of the Chinese government's longstanding practice of pressuring other governments to forcibly return human rights defenders and others critical of the government and the Chinese Communist Party, raises concerns that the Lao government succumbed to Chinese pressure. In August 2025, he was released from prison, but is still barred from traveling abroad to join his family, and to receive medical treatment for early-stage lung cancer he developed recently.
During the upcoming dialogue, Australia should call on the government of Laos to:
- Not facilitate, assist, or be complicit in transnational repression by other governments.
- Thoroughly and impartially investigate allegations of harassment, intimidation, threats, surveillance, and forced returns from Laos by foreign governments or their agents against dissidents and critics of neighboring countries in Laos and the role of Lao officials in those actions, promptly issue findings, and appropriately discipline or prosecute those responsible, regardless of position or rank.
- Thoroughly and transparently investigate allegations of harassment, intimidation, threats, surveillance, and forced returns by Lao authorities against exiled Lao nationals in Southeast Asia or elsewhere, promptly issue findings, and appropriately discipline or prosecute those responsible, regardless of position or rank.
- End the practice by Lao officials of forcibly returning refugees or asylum seekers in violation of the principle of nonrefoulement, and hold those who had ordered and carried out such transfers accountable.
Enforced Disappearances and Attacks on Critics
Laos is bound under international human rights law to prevent and remedy enforced disappearances. However, it continues to deny allegations that it has abducted activists and political dissidents. Enforced disappearances violate a range of fundamental human rights protected under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Laos ratified in 2009, including prohibitions against arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, and extrajudicial executions. Laos has yet to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which it signed in 2008.
December 2025 will mark the 13-year anniversary of the enforced disappearance of Lao civil society leader Sombath Somphone, who was last seen at a police checkpoint on a busy street of Vientiane. CCTV footage showed that police stopped Sombath's vehicle at the checkpoint and within minutes unidentified individuals forced him into another vehicle and drove him away in the presence of police officers. CCTV footage also showed an unknown individual later arriving to drive Sombath's vehicle away from the city center.
Sombath's case received widespread international attention and epitomizes Laos's broader history of impunity for grave human rights violations. However, evidence indicates that the Lao government has been obscuring facts about Sombath's abduction since his enforced disappearance in 2012, thus ignoring its international legal obligations to investigate the incident and provide information and reparations to Sombath's family, including his wife, Shui Meng Ng. As of 2025, the case remains open despite ongoing international interest in his case and calls for justice from other governments, UN agencies, and civil society organizations. In its most recent UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) cycle, Laos denied involvement in Sombath's disappearance.
On April 29, 2023, an unidentified gunman shot and seriously wounded prominent political activist Anousa "Jack" Luangsuphom in a coffee shop in Vientiane's Chanthabouly district. The shooting was recorded on the coffee shop's security cameras. He was the administrator of the Kub Kluen Duay Keyboard (literally, "Driven By Keyboard") Facebook page, a platform for people to express dissenting views about the Lao government, particularly as they relate to corruption and repression of fundamental freedoms. Lao authorities have yet to announce an investigation into Anousa's shooting despite reports by government-affiliated media on the case.
On March 5, 2016, Lao authorities arrested and detained three more activists associated with Free Lao, Somphone Phimmasone, Soukane Chaithad, and Lodkham Thammavong. They had criticized the Lao government online, and participated in a demonstration against Laos's human rights violations outside of the Lao Embassy in Bangkok. In 2017, they were each sentenced to between 12 and 20 years in prison.
During the upcoming dialogue, Australia should call on the government of Laos to:
- Fully and impartially investigate the enforced disappearance of Sombath Somphone in December 2012, and disclose his fate or whereabouts.
- End the use of arbitrary arrest and secret detention by Lao authorities.
- Ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which Vientiane signed in 2008 but has not ratified, and bring national laws and regulations into compliance with that convention.
- Fully and impartially investigate all reports of attacks against dissidents, make public the results of the investigations, and hold those responsible to account.
