“Isaan people have become more rights-conscious, which means they won’t submit to anyone easily. No one can mess with them anymore because they won’t allow it,” says former human rights commissioner Sunee Chaiyarot in this interview on human rights in Isaan.
Over 300 people gathered at Ubon Ratchathani University on Monday to discuss the state of human rights in the Northeast and the country. The 10th Annual Isaan Human Rights Festival gathered communities from across the region, activists, scholars, students, and foreign diplomats.
Ubon Ratchathani locals are wondering why they are being prosecuted for farming on land passed on to them by their parents.
The government’s push to reclaim forest land from encroachers in Ubon Ratchathani’s Khong Chiam district has threatened members of two communities who now face arrest and eviction from their land. To make things worse, construction of Chinese dams in the upper Mekong River in the past decade has severely impacted fish stocks and local livelihoods that depend on fishing.
After the eviction deadline for Baw Kaew was extended in a surprise decision on Monday, villagers and their supporters celebrated their tentative victory. But the community’s decade-long battle for their right to land is set to escalate again when the extension expires in late September.
As the deadline for the eviction of Baw Kaew village draws closer, community members are calling on political parties for help. Last Saturday, Future Future Party politicians to discuss solutions to resolve the decade-long land dispute.
Local people’s demands for development in Mukdahan’s Don Tan district are at odds with the development of a special economic zone in the province.
Manushya Foundation and the ThaiBusiness & Human Rights Network call on the Thai authorities to drop all charges against the 14 residents of Sab Wai village in the Sai Thong national park case.
International civil society organizations urge the government to drop all charges against 14 land and human rights defenders from Chaiyaphum’s Sab Wai village.
