News


Myanmar: Courts, Cops, Cronies—The Three C's Driving Farmers to Ruin, and Jail

May 13, 2014 | Asian Human Rights Commission

The frenzy of land grabbing in Burma (Myanmar) amid the country's transition to nominally democratic government shows no signs of abating. Reports of the number…


Myanmar: Building barriers: Fencing off the Bangladesh border

May 13, 2014 | Democratic Voice of Burma

The construction of a fence along Burma’s border with Bangladesh has resumed in Arakan State.

New checkpoints will also be built to stop people entering Burma…


World: Climate Change Deemed Growing Security Threat by Military Researchers

May 13, 2014 | Coral Davenport, The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The accelerating rate of climate change poses a severe risk to national security and acts as a catalyst for global political conflict, a…


Myanmar: Tea industry in steep decline

May 13, 2014 | Paing Soe, Democratic Voice of Burma

Tea-leaf producers in Namhsan, northern Shan State, are struggling to stay in business due to labour shortages and a surge in untaxed tea from neighbouring…


Programme Advisor - Food Security

May 12, 2014 | Cordaid

The Food Security Programme Advisor will coordinate implementation, ensure the coherence between the different projects and will come up with proposals to improve the effectiveness…


Extractives Advisor

May 12, 2014 | Cordaid

The objective of Cordaid’s Extractives programme is to ensure that the exploitation of extractives (oil, gas and minerals) contributes positively to local community development, to…


Land and Livelihood Program Manager

May 12, 2014 | The NGO Forum on Cambodia

The NGO Forum is seeking qualified Cambodian candidates to fill the position of Land and Livelihood Program Manager based in Phnom Penh with occasional travel…


Postdoctoral Researcher, International Environmental Law

May 12, 2014 | PluriCourts, Faculty of Law, University of Oslo

A position as postdoctoral researcher (duration 2 years) is available at PluriCourts, Centre for the Study of the Legitimate Roles of the Judiciary in the…


Second Conflict Minerals Report Filed

May 12, 2014 | Steve Quinlivan, Stinson Leonard Street

The second Form SD and related conflicts minerals report has been filed.  They are interesting documents but may still not be the holy grail of precedents because of, among…


China/Vietnam: China and Vietnam at Impasse Over Rig in South China Sea

May 12, 2014 | Keith Bradsher, The New York Times

HONG KONG — China and Vietnam appear to have reached at least a temporary impasse over a giant drilling rig sent by a state-controlled Chinese…


Liberia: Liberian Police Accused of Brutality in Marshall Land Crisis

May 12, 2014 | Henry Karmo, AllAfrica

Ben Town — Residents of Ben Town, Marshall Road in Margibi County have complained of being brutalized by officers of the Police Emergency Response unit…


Myanmar: Vice President defends land seizures by Tatmadaw

May 12, 2014 | Sithu Maung Maung, Mizzima

Vice President U Nyan Tun defended land seizures by the former military government in comments at a ceremony at Kyaunggone Township in Ayeyarwady Region to…


China/Vietnam: Vietnam Fails to Rally Partners in China Dispute

May 11, 2014 | Mike Ives and Thomas Fuller, The New York Times

HANOI, Vietnam — Vietnam’s prime minister, Nguyen Tan Dung, accused China on Sunday of “dangerous and serious violations” in a territorial dispute that has raised…


Call for Papers: 1st Austrian Conference on International Resource Politics

May 10, 2014 | OeFSE (Austrian Foundation for International Development Research)

The purpose of the conference is to analyze prevailing natural resource politics, policies and arrangements, as well as problems and conflicts associated with specific forms of resource…


China/Philippines: Philippines Jails Chinese Sailors in Fish Dispute

May 10, 2014 | Gerry Mullany, The New York Times

HONG KONG — Raising the stakes in its confrontation with China, the Philippines said Saturday that it had imprisoned 11 Chinese fishermen who were caught…


Russia/Ukraine: Russia Ratchets Up Ukraine's Gas Bills in Shift to an Economic Battlefield

May 10, 2014 | Steven Erlanger, The New York Times

LONDON - Gazprom, the natural gas giant 50.01 percent owned by the Russian government, keeps ratcheting up the bill for Ukraine, increasing the economic pressure…


Call for Applications: OSU Graduate Certificate in Water Conflict Management (Online program)

May 9, 2014 | Oregon State University

The 18-credit online graduate certificate provides in-depth training to enhance your career in water governance and help you implement strategies that impact our ecosystems, society and economics. Program graduates…


Call for Applications: UNESCO-IHE MSc Program on Water Conflict Management

May 9, 2014 | UNESCO-IHE

The 18-month programme based in Delft, The Netherlands, is designed for water managers as well as for institutional, legal and international relations experts interested in local,…


Sierra Leone/Guinea: Fraud Warning and Fake Kimberley Process Certificates for Sierra Leone and Guinea

May 9, 2014 | US Department of State

The Department of State, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, in conjunction with U.S. Customs and Border Protection is advising the public on several scams…


What Water Wars? 'Think Water Cooperation', Expert Says

May 8, 2014 | Anastasia Moloney

Back in 1995, Ismail Serageldin, then World Bank vice president, warned that: "Many of the wars this century were about oil but those of the…


Ukraine: Separatists Defy Kiev and Putin on Referendum

May 8, 2014 | C. J. Chivers and David M. Herszenhornc, The New York Times

SLOVYANSK, Ukraine — Pro-Russian militants in eastern Ukraine vowed on Thursday to press ahead with a referendum seeking autonomy, a risky move that seemed to…


China/Vietnam: China Insists It Has Right to Put Rig off Vietnam

May 8, 2014 | Fuel Fix

BEIJING — China insisted Thursday it had every right to drill for oil off Vietnam’s coast and warned its neighbor to leave the area around…


South Sudan: Diplomat Says IGAD Force Will Not Protect South Sudan's Oil

May 8, 2014 | Radio Tamazuj

Sudan’s deputy ambassador in South Sudan says the proposed East African IGAD force in South Sudan will protect only ceasefire monitors and has no other…


South Sudan: African Markets - Factors to watch on May 8

May 8, 2014 | Retuers

South Sudan's government does not have enough money to pay its bills and will have to borrow from oil companies if the four-month rebellion in…


Jus Post Bellum Symposium: The Norm of Environmental Integrity in Post-Conflict Legal Regimes

May 7, 2014 | Cymie R. Payne

The standard for illegality of harm to the environment is “too restricted, incomplete, inadequately integrated into military activities, and too rarely enforced.” Cymie R. Payne…


Conflict Minerals Reporting Deadline: Is Your Business Ready?

May 7, 2014 | Jeff Leinaweaver, The Guardian

As US businesses scramble to meet the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s conflict minerals disclosure rule – with the first reporting deadline rapidly approaching 2…


Myanmar: Farmers Injured in Clash With Police After Court Decision

May 7, 2014 | Nyein Nyein, The Irrawaddy

Two farmers were hospitalized Tuesday in Paungtae Township, Pegu Division, when police violently clashed with supporters of an activist denied bail in a case relating…


Myanmar: Deforestation Spreads as Timber Demand Soars

May 7, 2014 | The Myanmar Times

Ashen earth strewn with the limbs of once-mighty trees is all that is left of the fearsome forest in central Myanmar that Wa Tote remembers…


China/Vietnam: Vietnam Squares Off With China in Disputed Seas

May 7, 2014 | Gerry Mullany and David Barboza, The New York Times

HONG KONG — Tensions in the South China Sea intensified Wednesday as Vietnamese vessels confronted Chinese ships that were working to place an oil rig…


Oil in South Sudan: Turning Crisis Into Opportunity

May 6, 2014 | Jill Shankleman, New Security Beat

Outside of donor and humanitarian aid, South Sudan’s economy is almost entirely dependent on the oil sector – and that sector is in crisis.

After a…