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<div>Pawinee Chumsri, a lawyer at Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, has won the 2017 Somchai Neelapaijit Award. Pawinee urged society to action, saying that, ‘If people don’t fight, lawyers really can’t achieve anything’.</div>
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<div>On 11 March 2017, the Somchai Neelapaijit Memorial Fund announced <a href="http://prachatai.org/journal/2017/03/70534">Pawinee Chumsri as the winner of its annual award</a>, commending an outstanding human rights advocate.
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<p>Police in northeastern Thailand have summoned seven anti-mine activists, accusing them of intimidating district officials and unlawful assembly.</p>
<p>On 18 December 2016, seven members of an activist group called Khon Rak Ban Koed (KRBK), translated as ‘People Who Love Their Home’, reported to Wang Saphung Police Station in Loei Province after one of them received a summons in early December.</p>
<p>KRBK is an anti-mine group comprising villagers from six villages in Wang Saphung District.</p>
<p>Anti-mine activists in Isaan, fired back against a mining company, demanding the company 3.18 million baht for judicially harassing them.</p>
<p>On 12 September 2016, about 30 members of Khon Rak Ban Koed (KRBK), translated as ‘People Who Love Their Home’, attended a hearing at Loei Provincial Court, the <a href="http://www.citizenthaipbs.net/node/9620">Thai PBS reported</a>.</p>
<p>The hearing was held to consider the KRBK’s request not to pay the court fee in a civil lawsuit they filed against Tungkum Company, a gold mine operator in Loei.</p>
<p>More than two dozen civil society groups have urged the Thai authorities not the pass a Mining Bill, saying that while reducing red tape for mining businesses, the bill will do more harm than good to society.</p>
<p>A Provincial Court in Isan, Thailand’s northeast, has handed down jail terms to two military officers accused of involvement in a violent assault against anti-mine villagers while dismissing lawsuits filed by a mining company against anti-mine activists.</p>
<p>Loei Provincial Court has dismissed a civil lawsuit filed by a gold mining company against key leaders of an anti-mine group. </p>
<p>The Provincial Court of the northeastern province of Loei on Wednesday, 30 March 2016, dismissed charges against six key members of Khon Rak Ban Koed (KRBK), translated as ‘People Who Love Their Home’, an anti-mine group comprising villagers from six villages in Wang Saphung District of Loei.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The Thai military in Isan, Thailand Northeast, prevented an environmental youth camp in an area with an ongoing mine conflict in Loei Province from taking place, saying that the event might affect national security.</p>