Open Letters

On 9 August 2022, the Senate has approved the Draft Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act B.E….. This Act will then be submitted to the House of Representatives to decide whether they would agree with the Senate amendments or not.

On 9 August 2022, the Senate has approved the Draft Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act B.E….. This Act will then be submitted to the House of Representatives to decide whether they would agree with the Senate amendments or not.

As civil society organizations, we are in a unique position to use our network of community-driven support networks to influence the undertaking of sustainability in environmental issues that threaten Thailand, as well as advocate the implementation of human rights in our spheres' of influence. It is for the latter we start this conversation, highlighting the plight of the indigenous Karen people to the Petchaburi province; to call on your noble abilities, the strength you have in your networks and influence you can impress upon the Royal Thai Government, to respect the rights of the Indigenous Peoples of the Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex (KKFC), halting all forms of violation.

I, Ms. Sitanan Satsaksit, an authorized person of Ms. Saowaphon Satsaksit (formerly Darunee), residing at 299 Khuen Thani Road, Tambon Nai Muang, Muang District, Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand. Ms. Saowaphon is a mother of Mr. Wanchalearm Satsaksit, who have been abducted and disappeared in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on June 4, 2020. 

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Thai Lawyers for Human Rights and the Cross Cultural Foundation write to you on this day, the 2017 International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, to express our serious concern at the ongoing delay in passing legislation aimed at protecting against torture, ill-treatment and enforced disappearance and the apparent lack of progress in investigating alleged enforced disappearances, including the cases of Somchai Neelapaijit and Porlajee “Billy” Rakchongcharoen. These cases of enforced disappearance have not been resolved in spite of the repeated efforts by their families and Thai and international human rights groups to bring attention to them.  We urge that the government institute legal and administrative measures to provide better protection against enforced disappearance in compliance with Thailand’s international human rights obligations.

In pursuance to the arson of houses, rice barns and other properties of the traditional Karen Thai villagers, it has given rise to one of the gravest human rights violations, the case of Mr. Pholachi Rakchongcharoen who was held in custody by Mr. Chaiwat Limlikhit-aksorn, Former Chief of the Kaeng Krachan National Park and other three National Park officials in the Kaeng Kachan National Park since 17 April 2014 when he was last seen.