<p>Despite the euphoria surrounding the upcoming national election in November 2015, human rights abuses and violations are still prevalent in Myanmar with no clear sign of improvement.</p> <p>Representatives from many local civil society organisations (CSOs) in Myanmar took the floor at&nbsp;a Lecture organized by UPR Info and the Burma-Myanmar UPR Forum,&nbsp;at Thammasat University, Tha Prachan Campus, Bangkok, on Wednesday morning, 9 September 2015, to&nbsp;present on the human rights situation in Myanmar and in the borders of Thailand/Myanmar.&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">The Thai authorities contacted a family of an anti-junta activist in northern Thailand after his activist group urged the junta to step down when the 2015 charter draft was rejected. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Pongnarin Nonkam, a member of New Democracy Movement (NDM), a well known anti-junta activist group, who is a law student from Ramkhamhaeng University, told Prachatai that on Monday afternoon, 7 September 2015, the Thai authorities contacted his parents and asked about his and his family’s personal details.</p>

<p>Thai Military and police officers stormed into a seminar about a Thai historical figure and forced the organisers to cancel the event, saying that it might be illegal under the volatile political situation.</p> <p>According to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), many police and military officers in plainclothes on Sunday, 6 September 2015, came to Santhi Prachatham Library of Satienkoset-Nakaprateep Foundation in central Bangkok and forced a seminar about the life of Narin Phasit, 1874-1950, to be aborted.</p>

<div> <div>UN special rapporteurs have sent a letter to the Thai government, expressing grave concerns over the use of Article 112 or the lèse majesté law.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The letter, sent to the Thai government on 8 December 2014, named 21 suspects or defendants or convicts under the lèse majesté law and Article 14 of the Computer Crime Act.&nbsp;</div> </div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The 21 are:</div> <ol> <li>Khantawut B,&nbsp;</li> <li><a href="http://prachatai.org/english/node/4872">Tanat Thanawatcharanon, aka Tom Dundee,</a></li> <li><a href="http://prachatai.org/english/node/4696">Sira<br /> </a></li></ol>

<div>Since the absolute monarchy was abolished in Thailand in 1932, over a dozen successful military coups have taken place in our country. </div>

<p>On 22 May 2014, the military clique in the name of “National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO)” seized power from the Yingluck Shinawatra government citing as its pretext the incessant violence which has led to massive casualties among people and damage to properties, hence the seizure of the power to stem the destructive causes. &nbsp;</p>

<p>Last week, Freedom House, the Washington, DC based human rights organization, released its annual report <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/freedom-press-2015#.VUPV1M4-Bo4">Freedom of the Press 2015</a>, a damning assessment in the decline of global media freedoms.&nbsp; Around the world journalists were subject to an increasing battery of national security laws, sedition charges, censorship, arrest, intimidation and the extrajudicial killing of journalists.</p>

<p>The discovery of a remote camp containing the graves of what are thought to be the remains of human rights has sent shockwaves throughout the nation and beyond.&nbsp; The site contained 32 shallow graves but human rights remains have been found in only 26, indicating that it was expected that there would be more victims.</p>

<p><em>This week, Patiwat S. was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for lèse majesté because of his role in the play, “The Wolf Bride.” Patiwat is the most recent student to have been imprisoned under the law, and has been an advocate for Isaan peoples’ rights and democracy for years.</em></p> <p>On Monday, the criminal court sentenced Khon Kaen University student Patiwat S. and activist Pornthip M. to five years in jail for their involvement in a satirical play that was deemed “damaging to the monarchy.” The court reduced the sentence by half for their admission of guilt.</p>

<div>On 23 February 2015 student activists Patiwat S., 23, and Pornthip M. (f), 26, were each sentenced to two and a half years in prison for violating Thailand’s “lèse-majesté” law. The charge of “lèse-majesté” criminalises alleged insult of the monarchy under Article 112 of the Criminal Code, and is commonly used to silence peaceful dissent. According to reports, there has been a considerable rise in arrests, trials and sentences relating to lèse majesté cases since the military coup of 22 May 2014. The case against Patiwat S. </div>

<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-33531540-7d2c-9933-2060-2c511739b6c7">Press freedom in Thailand has fallen on the Reporters Without Borders index from a ranking of 130 in 2014 to 134 in 2015. Thailand still remains the second best among the ten members of the ASEAN.</span></p>

<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-a0ce0b52-7136-9370-b12c-3edcd75b46d4">The Prevention and Suppression of Temptations to Dangerous Behaviors which will ban specific kinds of pornography in a bid to increase efficiency in suppression, potentially paves way for a ban of group sex, and BDSM, in the name of public morals. The bill also poses a great threat to media freedom as it not only broadly defines a wide range of media content deemed inappropriate, it also adopts the notorious article of the Computer Crime Act which indiscriminately holds internet intermediaries liable for all pornographic/violent materials without safe harbour.</span></p> <p></p>