“Human Rights in ASEAN: Lessons Learned from the Disappearance of Sombath Somphone and Somchai Neelapaijit”

March 27, 2013, 9.30-12.00,
Jitti Tingsapat Meeting Room, 1st Floor, Faculty of Law,
Thammasat University (Tha Phrachan Campus), Bangkok,

The Somchai Neelapaijit Memorial Fund, Justice for Peace Foundation, Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliances (TERRA), and Amnesty International Thailand will host a panel discussion entitled “Human Rights in ASEAN: Lessons Learned from the Disappearance of Sombath Somphone and Somchai Neelapaijit.” The event will take place on March 27, 2013, from 9.30-12.00, at the Jitti Tingsapat Meeting Room, 1st Floor, Faculty of Law, Thammasat University (Tha Phrachan Campus). Panelists will include: 1) Angkhana Neelapaijit, wife of Somchai Neelapaijit, 2) Dr. Sriprapha Petcharamesree, Mahidol University and the previous Thai representative of ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) and, 3) Witoon Permpongsacharoen, Director of Mekong Energy and Ecology Network (MEE Net). A statement by Somphone’s wife Ng Shui Meng will also be read during the event.

The objective of the panel discussion is to raise awareness about human rights violations in the region including enforced disappearances, the two cases themselves, and to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the disappearance of Somchai Neelapaijit. Moreover, organizers want to send a message to ASEAN governments that they should not focus only on economic cooperation while ignoring human rights violations. The cases of Sombath Somphone, the Lao development worker and Somchai Neelapaijit, the Thai activist lawyer, are two prominent cases showing the failure of the rule of law, transparency and accountability in ASEAN.

**Interpretation from Thai to English is available

Read more about Sombath Somphone at www.sombath.org and about Somchai Neelapaijit at www.somchaiaward.org

For more information, please email [email protected] or call (+66) 89-8291167,  (+66) 89-8291167