<div>Research shows an increase in the number of young middle-class Thai women marrying white men. </div>

<p>A network of religious leaders and human rights academics in Southern Thailand has urged all parties to the conflict in the restive southern border provinces to abstain from violence against civilians and called on the Thai state to make the southern peace talks a national issue.</p>

<p>An expert on civil and political rights who serves as an advisor to Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has resigned, saying that most of the candidates for commissioner are not qualified.</p> <p>Yatsipha Suksai, an expert on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and an advisor to the NHRC submitted a resignation letter to the human rights agency on 23 July 2015. &nbsp;</p>

<p>A high-school executive has scolded a grade 12 student activist who refused to take a Civic Duty class exam as being mentally ill while the Education Minister told the media not to pay much attention to her.</p> <p>According to the 23 July 2015 issue of Matichon newspaper, an administrator of Triam Udom Suksa School in central Bangkok told the media that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/nattanan.warintarawet/posts/400036760202296">Nattanan Warintarawet</a>, aka Nice, an outspoken anti-coup student activist at the school, is mentally ill.</p>

<p>A large crowd gathered in downtown Bangkok to protest the government’s plan to build a coal-fired power plant in a touristic southern province on the Andaman Coast.</p> <p>On Thursday afternoon, 23 July 2015, about 300 people gathered in front of Government House in Bangkok to urge the military government to halt plans to build a coal-fired power plant and a coal pier in the southern province of Krabi.</p>

<p>A provincial court in northern Thailand has sentenced three anti-establishment red shirts to three years’ imprisonment each with the jail term suspended for hanging a banner with a message deemed seditious.</p> <p>On 22 July 2015, the Provincial Court of the northern province of Chiang Rai sentenced Od Suktako, Thanomsi Namrat, and Suksayam Jomtan, three red shirts from Mae Suai District of Chiang Rai, to four years in jail each under Article 116 of the Criminal Code, Thailand’s sedition law, for hanging a banner with a message viewed as sedition.</p>

<p>A poll conducted by a think tank in Thailand’s Deep South shows that people in the restive border provinces are in favour of peace talks despite their distrust of state volunteer corps.</p> <p>The latest survey on how people in the southern border provinces of Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat view the violent conflict, social issues, justice system, and peace process between the Thai state and the Muslim insurgent groups shows that 76.9 per cent of the local population, the majority of whom are Muslims, are in favour of the ongoing peace process.</p>

<p dir="ltr">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. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p dir="ltr">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.</p>

<p>Following revelations by WikiLeaks that the Thai authorities allegedly purchased a surveillance programme from an Italian firm, further leaked documents show that staff from the IT firm went to Thailand’s Deep South to deliver certain products. &nbsp;</p>

<p>The Thai authorities have given the green light to a bill to establish a National Media Council, saying that it will improve media ethics and freedom. However, some say that the bill will do the opposite.</p> <p>According to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.posttoday.com/politic/377369">Post-today news</a>, on Monday, 20 July 2015, a majority of National Reform Council (NRC) members voted to approve a bill to protect media freedom. 167 NRC members voted in favour of the bill while 20 voted against it. 27 members abstained.</p>

<p>An elderly bombing suspect has urged the police to reinvestigate his alleged brutal torture by military officers while he was detained under martial law.</p> <p>Sansern Sriounruen, a 63 years-old suspect in a case related to explosions at the Bangkok Criminal Court and Siam Square, and planned explosive attacks in other locations in Bangkok in early March 2015, plans to submit a letter tomorrow, 21 July 2015, to request the Royal Thai Police to investigate his allegations of torture.</p>

<p>Laws to privatize four leading universities in Thailand are to come into force amid concerns from many student activist groups.</p> <p>On Friday, 17 July 2015, laws on the privatisation of four leading state universities Thammasat, Kasetsart, Suan Dusit Rajabhat, all in Bangkok, and Khon Kaen in Thailand’s Northeast, were published in the Royal Gazette.</p> <p>In the Thai legislative system, a law is officially enacted a day after it is published in the Royal Gazette.</p>