Rights, Issues, and Activism
Being an ethnic minority with little easily accessible legal recourse, Akha everywhere have long been subject to rights abuses.
Perhaps the most important issue facing the Akha pertains to their land. The Akha’s particular relationship to their land is vitally connected to the continuation of the Akha culture but the Akha rarely have "official" or state sanctioned land rights, or claims to their land as land rights are considered traditional. These conceptions of land are at odds with those held by the nation states whose land the Akha now occupy. Most Akha are not full-fledged citizens of whatever country they inhabit and are thus not easily allowed to legally purchase land, although most Akha villagers are too poor to even consider purchasing land.
It has been reported by various rights groups that several land seizures of Akha Land have been undertaken in the Name of the Queen of Thailand. Originally a semi-nomadic people, the Akha are often relocated by their national governments and placed into permanent villages after which the government purportedly sells logging companies and other private corporations access to their former land. The land onto which the Akha are displaced is almost always less fertile that their previous plots. On their new lands, the Akha can rarely produce enough food to sustain themselves and are often forced leave and seek employment outside the villages disrupting their traditional culture and economy.
In Thailand, a number of laws have been passed that curbs people’s rights to the forest, including the 2007 Community Forest Act. According to the Network of Indigenous peoples in Thailand, "These laws and resolutions have had severe impacts on indigenous peoples’ rights to residence and land. Under these laws and resolutions millions of hectares of land have been declared as reserved and conservation forests, or protected areas. Today, 28.78% of Thailand is categorized as protected areas. As a result, thousands of farmers previously living in the forest or relying on the forest for their livelihood have been arrested and imprisoned and their lands seized. Cases have been filed against them for the so-called encroachment on government land." And despite having signed and ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Thai government has not changed laws in order to adhere to those recommendations emphasizing respect for the rights of indigenous peoples and their full and effective participation in protected areas management and policy-making.
The reasons given for the Akha relocations vary, but a common response on part of the Thai government is to cite a concern for the preservation of the forests and promoting more sustainable agricultural techniques than the slash and burn agriculture traditionally used by the Akha. The Thai government’s involvement in relocation might also possibly be motivated by concerns of National security. According to International Human Rights Lawyer Jonathan Levy, "The Akha are identified with the opium growers who until recently dominated that portion of the "Golden Triangle" in Thailand. Thailand has taken steps to eradicate opium cultivation by resettling the Akha into permanent villages. However, both opium and long ingrained farming techniques are key to the complex Akha culture. While traditional opium cultivation has been suppressed, processed heroine and latest scourge, methamphetamine, is freely available from Burma. Thus Akha have become both impoverished farmers and in many cases narcotic addicts. As the Akha are resettled they come into contact with mainstream Thai culture, many Akha women are drawn to the "easy" money of the sex industry". The Akha are said to have the highest rates amongst all the hill tribes of addiction and are at the highest risk for contracting HIV, AIDS, or an STD. Measures have been undertaken by various state and Human Rights organizations including, UNESCO Asia Pacific Regional Bureau for Education in Bangkok and NCA in Lao PDR, to provide the hill tribes, including the Akha, with "comprehensive community based, non formal education" on HIV and drug abuse prevention. In addition, detoxification clinics have been open up in the region, with particularly positive consequences for women who tend to have the lower rates of addiction but often bear the brunt of burden while compensating for their missing partner financially and emotionally.
Despite their numbers, the Akha are the poorest of all the hill tribes. As roads bring accessibility and tourists, they also provide relief from the poverty of village life, especially for the younger generations who increasingly find themselves engaged in labor outside the villages. Many villages report a population decrease as many leave to find work in the cities, often for very long periods at a time. Many Akha complain that the younger generations becoming increasingly disinterested with traditional Akha culture and ways and more and more susceptible to outside, mainstream, cultural influences. According to one author, where the village squares were once "filled with the sounds of courtship songs", radios are now more likely to play pop hits broadcasted from the nearest radio stations.
As it becomes increasingly difficult to remain self-sufficient through agriculture, and as roads open up the villages to the cities, the Akha must also contend with the sometimes corrosive effects of the tourist industry. Not all Akha are happy to let tourists come in and observe village life. The Akha are often the subject of ecotourism which purports to open up remote spaces and people to Western tourists in order to expand their knowledge of the plight of the people and the perilous situation of the environment, and thus, expand their involvement in the fight to maintain their environment and their way of life. It is pitched as “responsible tourism”. There are many critiques of ecotourism as exploitative and a highly consumer centered and contradictory activity including the detrimental affects to the environment of the amount of jet engine fuel burned on the flight there and back, the additional amenities that must be built to cater to Western tourists expectations, the pollution and garbage associated with a Western lifestyle, the disturbance of flora and fauna and a bevy of other concerns expressed by environmentalist voices.
While eco-tourism agencies claim to help in exposing the plight of indigenous people, many Akha feel that they are being put on display for these ecotourist groups, as they are encouraged or forced to wear their most elaborate ethnic clothing and perform certain ceremonies and rituals that have no meaning for them out of context. The Akha also participate in the regular tourist industry through the sale of their handicrafts and goods to local tourists, which they must often do under financial duress. Many of the Akha people do not see the tourism as halting the Westernizing and Globalizing pressures, but rather, as a coercive commercialization and commodification of their culture.
Many Akha also complain of the missionaries that come to the villages and convert the Akha, sometimes forcibly, to Christianity. Many Akha feel that the missionaries generalize about, or in this particular case, "paganize" the Akha’s traditional belief system, demeaning their longstanding traditions. Some of the claims made against missionaries include the kidnapping of Akha children into orphanages and forced labor, and the forced or underpaid labor of Akha on farms. Many rights groups also make the claim that the money spent by missionaries on building churches and furthering Christian education could be better spent on helping the Akha with medical and sanitation improvements that are greatly needed in most villages.
Read more about this topic: Akha People