Thailand has formally appointed two former presidents of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea as its conciliators for its maritime dispute proceedings with Cambodia. The move marks the latest step in a compulsory conciliation process that emerged after Thailand moved to terminate the maritime MoU that had long served as the framework for bilateral negotiations. Prachatai brings together the key facts on how Thailand's push to scrap the maritime MoU with Cambodia led the two countries to compulsory conciliation under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

It has become clear that the Thailand-Cambodia maritime demarcation dispute will be subject to an international mechanism as Cambodia has recently invoked UN-backed compulsory conciliation in response to Thailand’s unilateral cancellation of a 25-year-old maritime MoU. Here’s all you need to know about the long-standing maritime dispute and the compulsory conciliation process.

Between 10 April – 19 May 2010, 94 people were killed during the military crackdown on the Red Shirt protests and over a thousand were injured. Most of those killed were shot with live rounds in the head and torso, and many were shot several times. Despite several inquests ruling that the protesters were killed by military fire, none of the cases made it to court. Attempts to prosecute the officers involved were denied, with courts saying that they do not have jurisdiction

The landscape of international criminal law and regional diplomacy in Southeast Asia underwent a seismic shift in April 2026 after a coalition of Rohingya survivors and prominent Indonesian human rights defenders submitted a criminal file to the Indonesian Attorney General’s Office against Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hliang over alleged genocide of the Rohingya people.

In late January 2026, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concluded its hearings on the merits of the case filed against Myanmar by The Gambia over the mass atrocities committed against the Rohingya ethnic minority in Myanmar. What began as an urgent legal effort focused on provisional measures has gradually evolved into a comprehensive examination of state responsibility under international law, and its implications will have an impact on the lives of Rohingya refugees.

As a Ministry of Interior Notification expediting citizenship applications from long-term immigrants and ethnic minority children will expire on 30 June 2026, proposals have been made for extensions to solve status issues for stateless people in Thailand.

In recent weeks, Thailand’s Chiang Mai Province has been engulfed in toxic air pollution, which has reached dangerous levels.  Residents have been forced to live with the smog, as well as unprecedented scorching weather this summer. While people have been advised to stay indoors, many still have to make ends meet. Stopping work means no money to feed themselves and their families. “I am also afraid of PM2.5 entering my body, but I can’t do anything. I have to keep living like this.” said a 40-year-old food stall owner.  Here’s how the bad air is affecting Chiang Mai residents.

For nearly eight decades, the Karen armed struggles has pursued a single political goal: federalism inside a unified Myanmar. That changed on 5 January, when Major General Nerdah Bo Mya declared independence from Myanmar and announced the creation of the Republic of Kawthoolei.

Migrants working as cleaners in Chiang Mai are saying that they risk becoming unemployed if they get pregnant, and even if they wanted to get an abortion, it is difficult to access in Thailand.

Ekachai Hongkangwan is an ordinary citizen who suddenly emerged as a “secret figure” on Thailand’s political scene after the 2006 coup, which not only reshaped the course of Thai politics but also irreversibly altered his life. Despite being detained several times and facing repeated death threats for his symbolic acts of resistance, Ekachai remained relentless in pursuing his activism. His deteriorating health in custody highlights a broader issue: access to medical care — a fundamental human right — which remains deeply flawed for prisoners in Thailand. For many inmates, the life of someone behind bars appears to be considered far less valuable than a life outside prison. The issue is even more poignant for so-called ‘prisoners of conscience,’ whose alleged crimes continue to be widely questioned.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, after chairing a security meeting in Songkhla on 17 February 2026, could not get his head around the fact that each year around Ramadan, separatist militants in the far South would step up their attacks in this historically contested region. His tough stance against Cambodia and his talk of building a wall along the Thailand-Cambodia border won him the 2026 general election. But the far South is different.

The Thai Navy has seized a Cambodian fishing boat and arrested its crew after they were allegedly found to have entered Thai waters illegally, prompting a protest from Cambodia that the act, in an area that Cambodia claimed as its territory, was illegitimate. The maritime boundary is one of the simmering tensions on the Thai-Cambodian land border.