Country Programs

» List of Grants, 2008

In the 1990s, Thailand was at the forefront of democracy and human rights promotion in Southeast Asia.  As a result of tireless civil society activism in the 1990s, the government ratified four international human rights treaties and enacted a new constitution that provided comprehensive human rights protections and a system of independent bodies to implement them.

Over the past several years, however, these protections have been steadily eroded.  The country’s “war on drugs” and other events have led to thousands of apparent extrajudicial executions and a police force increasingly accustomed to violence with impunity. Public sector corruption is rampant, and regular military coups (seventeen since 1932) and political interference by the military with civilian governments has undermined the integrity of public institutions. In addition, aggressive use of “lèse majesté” (insulting the monarchy) laws has severely curtailed freedom of speech, resulting in limited opportunities for public dialogue and arrests of journalists and human rights activists.

The Fund supports human rights organizations working to challenge a broad range of civil, political, economic and social rights abuses across the country; to protect and promote the rights of populations that experience high rates of abuse (e.g., northern hill tribes, Burmese and Cambodian migrant workers, and Thai factory and informal sector workers); to organize affected communities to promote their rights to land, water, and livelihoods; protect and advance women's rights; and to pursue impact litigation to develop jurisprudence consistent with international human rights law.  The Fund also seeks to support efforts to raise the visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights and to strengthen the work of these human rights defenders.

The Fund aims to provide sustaining support for human rights organizations.  To that end, we maintain a long-term focus on specific countries and regions where we believe strategic grant-making can make a difference in advancing human rights protections over time.  The Fund has had a grants program in Thailand since 2008.