Two sides of women’s rightsThis week, The ASEAN Post reported on Malaysia’s increased efforts to add women to boardrooms in 2018.

For decades the Rohingya have been denied recognition in Myanmar but the persecuted minority is close to securing a crucial symbol of their identity – their own unique digital alphabet.The language of the stateless Muslim people has been included in the planned upgrade to the Unicode Standard, the global coding system that turns written script into digital characters and numbers.It would allow the Rohingya to write emails, send texts and post on social media in their own language – a major st

In conjunction with Human Rights Day 2017, the ASEAN Parliamentarian for Human Rights (APHR) committee constituting of lawmakers from across the Southeast Asian region have reiterated that “2017 has been a challenging year for human rights advocates in Southeast Asia.”Taking the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar and the bloodshed in Philippines’ war on drugs and the crackdown on press freedoms across the region as prime examples of human right catastrophes which are still yet to be resolved, makes i

Singapore’s 2018 ASEAN chairmanshipThis week, Singapore announced its priorities going into 2018 as chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution condemning the systemic human rights violations in Myanmar against the Rohingya Muslims in the northern Rakhine State.

The Pope comes to townThe biggest story this week was Pope Francis’ visit to Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Pope Francis will lead an open-air mass Friday for around 100,000 Catholics in Bangladesh, which is grappling with a rise in Islamist extremism and a massive influx of Rohingya refugees from neighbouring Myanmar.The head of the Catholic Church will also meet refugees in Dhaka, a day after urging the world to take "decisive measures" to resolve a crisis that has forced more than 620,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh from neighbouring Myanmar.Francis arrived Thursday from Mya

In the shadow of one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent history, Pope Francis who is in Myanmar for a four-day visit, refrained from mentioning the word “Rohingya” throughout his speech at the capital, Naypyidaw.

Pope Francis will hold talks with Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday, a key moment of a tour aimed at soothing religious and ethnic hatreds that have driven huge numbers of Muslim Rohingya from the country.

As the U.S. and Europe grow increasingly outraged over the Rohingya refugee crisis in Myanmar, Asian businesses are continuing to invest.Bangkok-based construction company TTCL Pcl is one of the latest examples, targeting the first half of next year to complete a funding plan and shareholder structure for a planned three billion dollar coal-fired power plant in Kayin state bordering Thailand. The U.S.