One year since the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act came into effect, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said the Thai authorities has fallen short in implementing the Act and that it is concerned about the failure to provide proper training for responsible authorities on enforcement and to ensure prompt, thorough, and effective investigation and prosecutions in cases of alleged torture and enforced disappearances.

The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) and CIVICUS has issued a statement raising concerns about the Thai government's prosecution of activists and journalists. They also called the Thai government to drop charges against activists, journalists, and human rights defenders, end its practice of judicial harassment, and review and repeal its repressive laws.

Amnesty International Thailand and the Network for People's Amnesty today (5 February) submitted a petition signed by 7,301 people calling for the release of detained human rights lawyer Anon Nampa and for charges against him to be dropped. They also called for the repeal or amendments of laws violating people’s rights to freedom of expression.

Myanmar’s military junta has increasingly carried out unlawful airstrikes harming civilians in its military operations against a coalition of opposition and ethnic armed groups, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday (31 January). Governments that provide transfers or assistance of arms or materiel to the junta forces risk being complicit in war crimes.

Three years after its coup, the Myanmar junta is stepping up its ruthless crackdown on journalists. The army has summarily killed four journalists, and more than 150 media professionals have been locked up. Reporters are facing increasingly harsh prison sentences. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the international community to step up the pressure on the military regime to secure their release.

Three human rights organizations have condemned the conviction of activist Mongkhon Thirakot, who was sentenced to 50 years in prison for royal defamation and demand the immediate release of Mongkhon and other detained activists. They also endorsed the call for the repeal of the royal defamation, or lèse-majesté, law.

As the Thai parliament debates bills amending the Civil and Commercial Code to allow marriage registration regardless of gender, Amnesty International calls for the immediate adoption of this law and for the final version of the legislation to grant equal rights and legal recognition to LGBTQ couples as heterosexual couples.

The conviction of Move Forward Party MP Rukchanok Srinork for royal defamation charge was a violation of freedom of expression and sends a message to opposition party members to keep silent, says Human Rights Watch, who call for such use of the justice system to silence opposition lawmakers to be taken in account by countries being asked to consider Thailand’s candidacy for the UN Human Rights Council.

After the cabinet's approval of a marriage equality bill and decision to introduce it to parliament next month, the human rights organization Fortify Rights call on parliament to urgently pass it into law and ensure the right to marriage equality for couples of all genders in Thailand.

On 2 November, the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, the Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association (CamboJA), along with 19 other civil society organizations, issued a statement calling for the Cambodian government to conduct independent and transparent investigations of all crimes committed against journalists and human rights defenders in Cambodia.

Yesterday (6 November), the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and Amnesty International (AI) jointly submitted an amicus curiae legal brief to the Bangkok South Civil Court calling on the court to apply international human rights standards in a class action lawsuit filed by Cambodian farmers against the Thai sugar company Mitr Phol for alleged human rights abuses by its apparent subsidiary in Cambodia.

Four human rights organizations call for amendments to the royal defamation, or lèse-majesté, law to bring it into line with Thailand’s human rights obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and for the government to reverse the previous administration's repressive policies and actions, after it was reported that the number of verdicts in royal defamation cases has reached 100 in less than two years.