10 October marks the World Day against the Death Penalty which has been declared to raise the awareness about death penalty and how it violates basic human rights. The World Day against the Death Penalty was adopted by various organizations which attended a meeting in Rome, Italy in 2000. They have decided to declare 10 October every year as a day of global action to demand an end of death penalty, to raise the awareness of the negative impact of such punishment and to call on countries around the world to sign the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) aiming at the abolition of death penalty. Although Thailand is a signatory of ICCPR since 29 October 1996 and which became effective since 29 January 1997, it has yet to sign the Optional Protocol.

Facebook owner Meta’s dangerous algorithms and reckless pursuit of profit substantially contributed to the atrocities perpetrated by the Myanmar military against the Rohingya people in 2017, Amnesty International said in a new report published today.

Responding to the conviction and sentencing to two years’ imprisonment of protester Jatuphon “Niw” Saeung for participating in a mock fashion show in Thailand in October 2020, Amnesty International’s Deputy Secretary General Kyle Ward said:

On the occasion of International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and Amnesty International consider the adoption of the long-delayed legislation on torture, ill-treatment and enforced disappearance bill to constitute an important step toward the prevention and redress of these crimes. The organizations regret, however, that deficiencies in some provisions mean that it will fall short of becoming a fully effective legal instrument.

Ahead of an appeal hearing on Thursday for Pham Doan Trang, an independent journalist and human rights defender who was sentenced on propaganda charges to nine years imprisonment in December 2021, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Research Emerlynne Gil said: 

The upcoming five-year anniversary of the Rohingya crisis must mark a turning point in the urgent quest to deliver justice to the victims and hold those responsible to account, Amnesty International said today. 

Today (10 August 2022) Amnesty International Thailand and activists brought 4,701 names of Thai citizens who signed the petition through Amnesty International’s urgent action. The list was delivered to Mr. Somsak Thepsuthin, the Minister of Justice, by Mr. Wallop Nakbua, the Deputy Permanent Secretary for Justice, who also served as the Minister of Justice’s representative to call for the release, dismissed the allegations and restored bail rights to activists who are being held in custody pending trial. As well as, to demand that Thailand’s government uphold its commitments to international human rights standards, including the right to bail, freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly.

Ukrainian forces have put civilians in harm’s way by establishing bases and operating weapons systems in populated residential areas, including in schools and hospitals, as they repelled the Russian invasion that began in February, Amnesty International said today. 

Authorities in Myanmar’s prisons and interrogation centres routinely subject people detained for resisting the 2021 military coup to torture and other cruel or degrading treatment, Amnesty International said today in a new briefing, more than a year and a half after the power grab shattered the country’s halting transition to civilian rule.

Responding to the news that Japan has carried out its first execution of the year by hanging Tomohiro Kato, a man who was convicted of stabbing seven people to death in 2008, Hideaki Nakagawa, director of Amnesty International Japan said:

Responding to reports that Myanmar’s military authorities have carried out executions for the first time since the late 1980s, Amnesty International’s Regional Director Erwin van der Borght said:  

The right to protest is under unprecedented and growing threat across all regions of the world, Amnesty International said today, as the organization launched a new global campaign to confront states’ widening and intensifying efforts to erode this fundamental human right.