Responding to a South Korean High Court decision ordering the country’s national health insurance service to resume coverage for a partner in a same-sex relationship, Amnesty International’s East Asia Researcher Boram Jang said:
Today, more than 15 years after Thailand became a State Party to the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT), its long-delayed Act on Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance comes into effect. The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and Amnesty International welcome the law’s entry into force. Both organizations urge the authorities to follow this positive step with measures both to enforce the law and to make further international human rights commitments protecting against torture and ill-treatment and enforced disappearance.
he Amnesty International Thailand, activists and relatives of survivors of torture and enforced disappearance have submitted a letter to the Minister of Justice demanding that they stop postponing or extending the enforcement of the Act on Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance and reiterate that the Act must be enforced in its entirety. This can attest to the Thai government’s realization of the need to protect an individual from such grave violations and to restore justice to the affected persons and their families who have been denied justice for a long time. The letter was handed to Mr. Kerdchoke Kasemwongjit, Deputy Director-General of Rights and Liberties Protection Department (RLPD).
On 17 February 2023, the Central Administrative Court ruled to annul the decision of the Minister of Interior dated 13 August 2019 to dismiss the appeal filed by the Amnesty International Thailand Association after the Director General of Department of Provincial Administration in his capacity as the Bangkok Registrar of Associations had refused to register Mr. Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal, a political activist, as a member of the AIT Association’s Board of Directors since the decision had been made unlawfully.
Thai authorities have arrested, prosecuted, surveilled and intimidated child protesters for taking part in unprecedented mass demonstrations, Amnesty International said today, as it called for charges to be dropped and an end to any harassment discouraging children from joining protests.
Amid an ongoing crackdown on peaceful protest, including charges against hundreds of people, the Thai authorities have revoked bail for two young activists in January 2023 for exercising their rights. There are concerns for the life and health of two other detained female activists who have been on hunger-strike and generally refusing liquids since mid-January 2023. Authorities are arbitrarily detaining them and other individuals who they have targeted with criminal proceedings for peacefully exercising their rights.
The Myanmar military continues to arbitrarily arrest, torture and murder people with impunity two years after launching a coup, Amnesty International said today, calling for increased global action and solidarity ahead of the anniversary on 1 February.
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Responding to the decision by the Court of Tax Appeals to acquit Maria Ressa of four counts of tax evasion, Butch Olano, Amnesty International Philippines Section Director, said:
Ahead of the 21st anniversary of the opening of the Guantánamo Bay detention center, where the United States has detained nearly 780 Muslim men without charge or trial over the years, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Americas director, said:
Confronted with what can sometimes seem like an endless cycle of bad news in the media, it’s easy to feel despondent. But, amid the gloom, there were plenty of good news stories to celebrate this year.
An unprecedented number of UN member states have supported a key resolution calling for the establishment of a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty in the plenary session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on 15 December. 125 UN member states, close to two-thirds of the UN membership, voted to adopt the ninth resolution on a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, while 37 voted against the proposal and 22 abstained at the vote. This resolution was proposed by Australia and Costa Rica on behalf of an Inter-Regional Task Force of member states and co-sponsored by 79 states.