Chonticha Jaengrew
Chonticha Jaengrew is a human rights defender and a member of the New Democracy Movement and the Democracy Restauration Group, two organisations playing a prominent role in campaigning for human rights and democracy since the military took power in May 2014. Chonticha Jaengrew also campaigned for environmental rights, minority rights and freedom of expression, and took part in trainings on human rights aimed at Thai youth. She was briefly detained along with other pro-democracy activists in December 2015 while they were trying to investigate human rights abuses stemming from corruption allegations. In May 2015, she was also arrested for participating in a commemoration of the 2014 coup d’état. She and her relatives have faced constant harassment by the authorities, including regular phone calls, visits, raids and verbal threats.
Human rights defenders in Thailand face threats, physical assaults, arbitrary detention, judicial harassment, and extrajudicial killings. HRDs most at risk include those working with migrants, particularly along the border with Burma, those who are fighting for economic, social, and cultural (ESC) rights, and those working in the conflict zone of the three border provinces in Southern Thailand. The National Human Rights Commission of Thailand has documented 35 cases of extrajudicial killings of human rights defenders between 2003 – 2012, approximately 30 of whom were HRDs working on ESC rights. Many of these cases have not been properly investigated by the authorities.
