More than two-thirds of the committee responsible for screening the candidates to Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) are high-ranking military officers. A leaked classified document listing the members of the committee authorized to screen the behaviour and ethical backgrounds of the candidates to the NHRC shows that 12 of the 17 are four-star military offcers. Four other members are civilians and the remaining member is a police general.

Thailand’s national assembly should reject the nominees for the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), whose selection process did not meet international standards, Human Rights Watch said today. Upcoming revisions to the Thai constitution should ensure that the NHRC is credible, independent, and accountable, and that its commissioners are chosen in a transparent manner, open to public scrutiny and broad-based participation.

The Thai national rights agency has announced a list of seven candidates to replace the old human rights commissioners while a human researcher raised question whether most candidates are qualified as human rights defenders.    On Tuesday, 21 July 2015, the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRC) announced the list of seven new members of the NHRC, who will be replacing the old NHRC members who have been in office since June 2009.

Embattled villagers in Thailand’s Northeast Isan region have urged the Thai authorities to consider the environmental impacts of oil drilling before it is too late.

Thai cultural officials are becoming concerned at the proliferation on the internet of ‘underblurb selfies’ posted by politicians in an attempt to make themselves attractive to voters.