"Thailand: Human Rights Defenders Honored, Still Need Protection", 7 Mar 2016

Advocate, journalist, human trafficking survivors, and community activists receive prestigious award

Two women and two women-led organizations received a prestigious women’s human rights award…from the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRCT). Human rights defenders in Thailand remain at risk of abuse and reprisals, and the government should redouble protections, Fortify Rights said... 
 
The NHRCT awarded the 2016 Women’s Human Rights Defenders Honorary Certificate to Ms. Phinnapha Phrueksaphan, who has sought justice in the case of her disappeared husband, ethnic-Karen environmental activist Pholachi "Billy" Rakchongcharoen—last seen in April 2014 with officials of Kaeng Krachan National Park; Ms. Achara Ashayagachat, who has more than 20 years’ experience at the Bangkok Post, covering and exposing human rights abuses in Southeast Asia; the Ying Soo Cheewit (“Live Our Lives”) Group, a collective of Thai women who are survivors of human trafficking; and the women from Khon Rak Ban Kerd Group (KRBKG) in Loei Province, who have peacefully protested harmful mining practices in Thailand…