Khon Rak Ban Kerd Group
Khon Rak Ban Kerd Group, which translates as “People who love their home”, is a community-based group working to address environmental rights violations arising from the negative impacts of the open-pit copper-gold mine in Thailand’s Loei province. It has held several peaceful gatherings in the area. Its members have repeatedly been targeted with judicial harassment, both from the mining company Tungkum. Co Ltd as well as from local authorities.
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.
