Champa Patel, Acting Regional Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Amnesty International, revealed, “in the ASEAN region, there are few governments that can be proud of their human rights situation, while in many countries, many women are standing up to show their bravery and face various forms of danger in order to fight against the injustice”.
Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) regret the decision of Thailand’s National Legislative Assembly (NLA) to further delay the passage of essential legislation criminalizing torture and enforced disappearances. Our organizations call on the Thai government to cease its stalling measures and instead prioritize the amendment of the Draft Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act (Draft Act) in order to bring it into line with international law. The government should then ensure its passage into law without undue delay.
Amnesty International welcomes the 10 March vote by Thailand’s National Legislative Assembly to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED). This is an important step towards combating enforced disappearances and securing truth and justice for victims, including family members. Amnesty International urges authorities to avoid further delays in ratifying the treaty and to eunsure that its obligations to prevent and protect against disappearances become a domestic reality.
Amnesty praised the Thai authority after ISOC revealed it would withdraw the petition of defamation filed against three human rights defenders who made the report concerning the torture in the Southern Border Provinces.
Media organizations and media professionals nationwide gathered on World Press Freedom Day this year at Thai Journalists Association joined by ambassadors and representatives from many countries such as the United States, Sweden, Australia, and Finland as observers.
Amnesty International revealed the report of global human rights situation of years 2016/2017 which gathered activities related to human rights during 2016.
Amnesty urged the Thai authority not to prosecute and dismiss the charge against the human rights defenders who made the report concerning the torture by the government officials in the south. Those three defenders are going to report themselves in Pattani again this 21st February.
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Amnesty International Thailand held the 2017 annual general meeting on 1st July in order to present the performance of the previous year, elect the new board of directors and approve the change of adjustment of membership fees and budget, and update the performance progress of Amnesty Thailand so that the members could acknowledge and determine the future human rights works. This year, the members exercised their rights to elect the board of directors and a treasurer, which were 3 positions in total substituting the vacating directors. The individuals newly elected to be the directors are Khun Apichat Pongsawat and Khun Parit Ratanakul Seriroengrit, with 37 and 22 votes, respectively. The meeting approved Mr. Ekachai Pinkaew as the treasurer of Amnesty Thailand.
This report documents a campaign of violence by the Myanmar security forces against Rohingya since 9 October 2016. Soldiers and police have randomly fired on and killed civilians, raped women and girls, torched whole villages and arbitrarily arrested Rohingya men without any information about their whereabouts or charges. These actions have been a form of collective punishment targeting Rohingya in northern Rakhine state, and may amount to crimes against humanity.
Amnesty was disappointed by the NLA for the vote for passing the draft amendment to the Computer Act Agendum 3, while thanking more than 366,000 people who signed their name to cast dissenting votes.
After attacks on police outposts in the north of Myanmar’s Rakhine State, the authorities initiated a major security operation placing thousands of already vulnerable people at risk. Amid reports of human rights violations by security forces, access for humanitarian organizations, independent journalists and human rights monitors has been restricted.