Ms. Houayheuang Xayabouly, also known as Muay, is a Lao tour guide and shop owner and an environmental, anti-corruption and land rights activist and woman human rights defender. She contributes to the protection and respect for the rights of the Lao people, by highlighting the harms caused from business activities and corruption, as well as calling for solutions to redress the same. Muay denounced the unfair competition created by Chinese investments and the land grab of territories that belonged to the Lao people, which were forcibly taken away and given in land concessions to Chinese companies for mines, dams, railways, infrastructure projects and special economic zones. She also exposed the unfair practices in the Chinese-owned and operated banana plantations and offered humanitarian aid to affected communities. The indigenous groups ‘Khmu’ and ‘Hmong’ that lost their land to the plantations were forced to work there, suffering negative health impacts, due to the use of chemicals that contaminated their land, rivers and groundwater. As a result of her human rights activism, she was arrested without warrant on September 12, 2019, and sentenced to five years in prison.