A 30-year-old activist from Chiang Rai has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for royal defamation after the Appeal Court ruled to increase the sentence given to him by the Chiang Rai Provincial Court.

Living along a river destabilised by dam discharges, Upper Mekong residents tell how they cope with unseasonable water level fluctuations to protect natural environments, like the “Boon Rueng Forest” wetlands, and preserve traditional Akha cuisine.

<p>If the curfew in Bangkok during the lockdown period was tiresome enough, imagine being allowed to travel for only 3 days a week. The border shutdown ordered from the central authorities is needlessly affecting livelihoods in the north that are highly dependent on trans-border activities.</p>

<p>The Chiang Rai-based NGO Center for Girls has revealed that they have managed to help a 13-year-old girl escape a forced marriage with a 50-year-old man after the girl contacted them in March 2018.</p>

<div>Human rights lawyers have filed a charge against Thailand’s Corrections Department after prison officers barred a lawyer from meeting his lèse majesté client.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><img alt="" src="https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5568/15214891692_e68b09995d_o.png" /></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div> <div>On 16 January 2016, Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) filed a charge against the Corrections Department, the Director of Chiang Rai Central Prison and a prison staff member. </div></div>

<div>A human rights organization admired Thailand for upholding principles to protect children fleeing from countries in conflict after a court ruled in favor of a Somali child who fled to Thailand illegally.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><img alt="" src="https://scontent.fbkk5-6.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/15073553_1890032587893610_5528855655176760630_n.jpg?oh=339ad905699ad747d6ea25adae87e323&amp;oe=58C3F903" /></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><span>Photo cour </span></div>

<div> <div>For a second time, a military court in northern Thailand has denied bail for a lèse-majesté suspect accused of posting defamatory images of the Crown Prince online.&nbsp;</div> </div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><img alt="" src="https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5568/15214891692_d9b2535c96_b.jpg" /></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On 26 October 2016, the Chiang Rai Military Court denied bail for Sarawut (surname withheld due to privacy reasons), a 32-year-old lèse-majesté suspect, <a href="http://www.tlhr2014.com/th/?p=2582">reported</a> </div>

<p>Military officers in northern Thailand summoned a group of anti-establishment red shirts for a discussion after they wore red shirts.</p> <p>According to&nbsp;<a href="https://tlhr2014.wordpress.com/2015/11/02/redshirt_1nov/">Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR)</a>, military officers in the northern province of Chiang Rai summoned Somchai Saengthong and three other red shirts for a meeting at the 37th Army Division on Monday morning, 2 November 2015.</p>

<p>Military officers summoned university students in northern Thailand for a discussion after they commemorated the 1976 student massacre, saying that the event was political incitement.</p> <p>According to&nbsp;<a href="https://tlhr2014.wordpress.com/2015/10/07/chiangrai_ratchabhat/">Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR)</a>, military officers from the 37th Army Division in the northern province of Chiang Rai on Tuesday, 6 October 2015, contacted Chiang Rai Rajabhat University, requesting to have words with all the students who commemorated the 1976 student massacre.</p>

<p>More than ten years after the war on drugs wreaked havoc on many Lahu ethnic minority families in the hilly northern Thai-Myanmar border, arbitrary abuses and discrimination from Thai state authorities continue as they struggle to come to terms with their traumatic past.</p> <p></p>

<p>A military court in northern Thailand has sentenced a man diagnosed with psychosis to five years in prison for destroying the King’s portrait.</p> <p>The military court of the northern province of Chiang Rai on Thursday morning, 6 August 2015, sentenced Samak P., a 48-year-old man accused under Article 112 of the Criminal Code, the lèse majesté law, to 10 years imprisonment after the suspect pleaded guilty as charged last month.</p> <p>Since the defendant pleaded guilty, the court reduced the jail term by half to five years.</p>

<p>A provincial court in northern Thailand has sentenced three anti-establishment red shirts to three years’ imprisonment each with the jail term suspended for hanging a banner with a message deemed seditious.</p> <p>On 22 July 2015, the Provincial Court of the northern province of Chiang Rai sentenced Od Suktako, Thanomsi Namrat, and Suksayam Jomtan, three red shirts from Mae Suai District of Chiang Rai, to four years in jail each under Article 116 of the Criminal Code, Thailand’s sedition law, for hanging a banner with a message viewed as sedition.</p>