Following the Trump administration’s appointment of Gina Haspel as Deputy Director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International, said:“Reports that Gina Haspel directed the alleged CIA ‘black site’ in Thailand, at a time when detainees held there were subjected to torture and enforced disappearance, as well as a possible role in the destruction of evidence of such crimes under international law, raise extremely serious concerns.

Philippines: The police’s murderous war on the poor

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. 

Chelsea Manning’s long overdue scheduled release from a US military prison today finally ends her punishment for exposing classified information, including of possible war crimes committed by the US military, Amnesty International said.

Whistleblower and human rights hero Edward Snowden thanks the more than 1 million supporters who raised their voices for him.

Anti-Huthi forces in Yemen’s southern city of Ta’iz are leading a campaign of harassment and intimidation against hospital staff and are endangering civilians by stationing fighters and military positions near medical facilities, said Amnesty International today.

That which unites us is always greater than that which divides us. 

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.

What’s the common point between “I bought an ice cream for 1 million $” “I think Earth is flat” and “I love going to vacation to Chernobyl” ? A bad taste of humor you could say. The answer here is that those three statements are false. What would happen you think if you wrote those false statements on Facebook or Twitter? Normally, the answer would be nothing. But if you are in Thailand, as soon the new amendment to the Computer Crime Act would become effective and the authorities find your statement false and dangerous to somebody; you could technically risk a 5-year prison sentence and a 100,000 baht fine.

The criminal court dismissed the case where “Toongkam Company Limited” filed a lawsuit of defamation by advertising pursuant to Section 328 of the Criminal Code and Section 14(1) of the Computer Act against the correspondents and the board of directors of Thai PBS after the station reported news regarding the environmental effects of the gold mining run by the aforesaid company in Loei Province. Amnesty International Thailand stated that such decision is a good sign for freedom of expression of the media in Thailand.