Events

12 March 2019 is the 15th year anniversary of the enforced disappearance of Mr. Somchai Neelapaijit, a prominent human rights lawyer. He was disappeared after being stopped on a road in Bangkok on 12 March 2004 and was abducted from his car by a group of police officers. He has not been seen since. After 15 years since his disappearance, Somchai’s fate and whereabouts remain unknown.

Public Forum on “TORTURE LAW – AWAITING JUSTICE” At Kamonthip Ballroom 1, The Sukosol Hotel, Bangkok 29th June 2016, 13.00 hrs. – 16.30 hrs.

You are invited to join the public discussion on two years Commemoration of Billy Disappearances: Disappearance of persons/ justice/ life and liberty And special...

Prominent Thai Muslim human rights lawyer, Somchai Neelapaijit, was abducted and subjected to enforced disappearance on 12 March 2004. At the time of his “disappearance”, Somchai Neelapaijit was a lawyer representing those allegedly tortured by police officers in the deep South. Ever since then, human rights organizations have continued to urge the Royal Thai Government to bring the perpetrators to justice and to end the serious ongoing human rights violations in the restive deep South, including arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, extra-judicial killings and torture.

Sombath Somphone, perhaps the Lao PDR's most prominent community development activist and founder of the Participatory Development Training Center (PADETC) was last seen on the evening of Dec 15, 2013 on a road in Vientiane. According to footage from a CCTV camera, he was stopped in his own vehicle by police, left it, and minutes later got into another vehicle and was driven off into the darkness.

Somchai Neelapaijit Memorial Fund, Justice for Peace Foundation, Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliances (TERRA), Amnesty International Thailand will host a panel discussion entitled “Human Rights in ASEAN: Lessons Learned from the Disappearance of Sombath Somphone and Somchai Neelapaijit.” The event takes place on March 27, 2013, from 9.30-12.00, at Jitti Tingsapat Meeting Room, 1st Floor, Faculty of Law, Thammasat University (Tha Phrachan Campus). The panelists comprise Angkhana Neelapaijit, Sriprapha Petcharamesree and Witoon Permpongsacharoen. Moreover, a statement by Mr Somphone’s wife will be read during the event.