Politics & Governance / Law & Institutions / International Law & Treaties

How International Law Betrays the Poor: The Dark Side of Development in Asia

Asian Yearbook of International Law (2011)

This video explores the disturbing reality behind international law and economic development in Asia, based on the 2011 Asian Yearbook of International Law. We expose how governments in Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Japan manipulate legal frameworks to exploit the vulnerable. In Cambodia, economic land concessions (ELCs) become a legal tool to steal indigenous lands. In Sri Lanka, post-war constitutional amendments dismantle democracy. In Bangladesh, international human rights treaties are signed but ignored in courts. And in Japan, the Fukushima disaster reveals a bureaucratic cover-up that prioritizes power over people. While you think globalization and prosperity automatically protect human rights, this video reveals the opposite: the law is often weaponized against the weakest. Watch to understand how state sovereignty and corporate interests crush individual rights—and why the next frontier might be digital.