The division was made most visible early last week when a group of 10 mostly pro-PAD human rights defenders led by lawyer Somchai Hom-laor met Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to discuss human rights concerns while another group, which has been mostly critical of the PAD discussed issues, met the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, during her visit to Bangkok.

At the meeting with the PM, nothing was raised about the airport closures or violence committed by the PAD over many months, while at the latter meeting with the UN Special Rapporteur, nothing was raised about the police's violent crackdown on the PAD last October.

Last week also saw a major international human rights defenders workshop organised by the Bangkok-based Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia) but its evening functions were not attended by any well-known human rights defenders who favour the PAD. One young female activist expressed frustration about the situation, which is likely to affect far more than just these people themselves, as there are ramifications for the future and reputation of human rights in Thailand.

The divide comes after years of human rights monitors openly or secretly defending the PAD and mostly turning a blind eye to alleged rights violations by the group. The same can be said about others in the opposite camp. Nasty email exchanges have taken place over the past 12 months and some activists no longer want to even discuss rights matters with those in the opposite camp. It began when some well-known rights defenders clearly took sides with one camp or the other. Those on the PAD-camp urged fellow activists not to harshly criticise the PAD's regressive politics and alleged rights violations and it snowballed into vicious arguments and finger pointing.

At one point last year, the Thai chapter of Amnesty International even issued a statement which could be read supporting the PAD - only to see their statement retracted after people in Amnesty's main office in London intervened.

Today, one camp is branded as ultra-royalist and pro-military while the others are damned as lackeys of Thaksin.

With a split like this, the principle of defending human rights without favour and with impartiality is the main casualty. Young generations of human rights defenders are now seeing bad examples being set by many of their seniors. They are forced to join either one of the two camps or shut up, lest they end up not having the support and patronage of their elders in a career as a supposedly altruistic non-partisan human rights defender.

As rights principles become more selective here and the division grows more apparent, the future of human rights in Thailand is itself suffering. The situation has become so politicised that rights principles are being partially abandoned and the credibility of rights activists has taken a nosedive.

Ousted national human rights commissioner Jaran Dittapichai is solidly in the pro-Thaksin red-shirt camp as a leader of the Democratic Alliance Against Dictatorship (DAAD). He met with Sekaggya last week. After the meeting, he said the situation today is such it's almost impossible to find an impartial rights defender in the country. However, Jaran is seen by those in the PAD camp as heavily partisan too.

Asked about the crisis, one female activist, who is now quite wary about the situation and did not want to be named, said: "There can only be hope when they talk about [rights] principles [which are not selective] and criticise [the situation and fellow human rights defenders]. [They] should discuss whether they want to stick with the universal notion of human rights or have a Thai-style human rights, like those who talk about Thai-style democracy."

The issue is not just different opinions but deep personal dislike for one another. So it's hard to see them sitting together at one table in the near future and talking frankly and fairly about non-partisan human rights in Thailand where one eye is not shut to pretend they didn't see something horrible they wish wasn't committed by those on their side.