<p>(New York,&nbsp;<span data-term="goog_902435019" tabindex="0">March 19, 2015</span>) –&nbsp;<a href="http://www.hrw.org/asia/thailand" target="_blank">Thai</a>&nbsp;authorities should promptly and impartially investigate the alleged torture of suspects while they were held incommunicado in military custody, Human Rights Watch said today.&nbsp;<br /></p>

<p>(New York,&nbsp;<span data-term="goog_244560936" tabindex="0">February 4, 2015</span>) –&nbsp;<a href="http://www.hrw.org/thailand" target="_blank">Thailand</a>’s military-installed Constitution Drafting Committee should scrap a proposal to merge the national human rights commission with the ombudsman’s office, Human Rights Watch said today. The military-appointed constitution drafters’ plan would gut the national human rights agency and pave the way for further repression.</p>

<p>(Washington, D.C.)&nbsp; -- The Government of Thailand&nbsp;<a href="http://www.mfa.go.th/main/en/media-center/14/52944-Thailand-will-not-recruit-prisoners-to-work--on-fi.html" target="_blank">announced last week</a>&nbsp;that it will scrap a proposed project to recruit prisoners to work on Thai fishing boats.</p>

<p>(Jerusalem, January 21, 2015) – Thai agricultural workers in&nbsp;<a href="http://hrw.pr-optout.com/Tracking.aspx?Data=HHL%3d8%2c43A1-%3eLCE593719%26SDG%3c90%3a.&amp;RE=MC&amp;RI=4432086&amp;Preview=False&amp;DistributionActionID=70640&amp;Action=Follow+Link">Israel</a>&nbsp;face serious labor rights abuses because Israeli authorities are failing to enforce their own laws, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.</p>

<p>(Washington, D.C.)&nbsp; -- More than a dozen labor and human rights organizations today sent a letter to Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, asking him to end a pilot project to recruit prisoners from Thailand’s correctional facilities to fill a labor shortage in the fishing industry. Multiple reports have documented gross labor violations on Thai fishing boats, including forced labor, physical violence, illegally low wages and human trafficking.</p>

<div>(New York) – Thailand’s military government should cancel a plan to encourage prisoners to work on fishing boats given the widespread abuses in the Thai fishery sector.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On December 4, 2014, Labor Minister Gen. Surasak Kanchanrat announced a plan to send 176 prisoners whose prison terms are up within one year, and who agree, to work on fishing boats in Samut Sakhon province, Thailand’s major fishery hub. </div>

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<div>Life in Thailand is growing more absurd by the day. Earlier this week Gen. Prayuth Chan-Ocha, the leader of the junta that seized power in May and later anointed himself prime minister, was beginning a speech in the northeastern province of Khon Kaen when five local university students stood up and stripped down to t-shirts emblazoned with “Don’t Want a Coup” in Thai. </div>

<p><span>(New York, October 29, 2014) – The Thai government should immediately investigate and prosecute security personnel found responsible for the killing of an ethnic Malay Muslim child in southern&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.hrw.org/asia/thailand" target="_blank">Thailand,</a><span>&nbsp;Human Rights Watch said today.</span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p> <p>(New York, October 25, 2014) – The Thai government has yet to bring to justice police and military personnel responsible for the deaths of scores of protesters in Tak Bai in southern&nbsp;<a href="http://www.hrw.org/asia/thailand" target="_blank">Thailand&nbsp;</a>in 2004, Human Rights Watch said today.</p>

<p>(New York, October 24, 2014) –&nbsp;<a href="http://www.hrw.org/asia/malaysia" target="_blank">Malaysian</a>&nbsp;authorities should end their&nbsp;<a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2010/07/29/malaysia-trial-opposition-leader-proceeding-unfairly" target="_blank">politically motivated prosecution</a>&nbsp;of opposition leader&nbsp;<a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/02/11/malaysia-drop-political-case-against-anwar" target="_blank">Anwar Ibrahim</a>, Human Rights Watch said today.</p>

<div>Thailand’s credibility as a potential member of the United Nations Human Rights Council depends on the government’s addressing urgent human rights concerns at home, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, on October 18, 2014.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Thailand is a candidate, along with Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and Qatar, for the four vacant Human Rights Council seats allocated for the Asia-Pacific region. </div>