On 27 June 2019, during the Business and Human Rights Day in Thailand 2019, Manushya Foundation and the Thai BHR Network submitted an open letter to the Royal Thai Government (RTG) called "Human Rights Defenders are a Cornerstone of Sustainable Development: On the need to ensure that Thailand’s development interventions support realization of human rights, safeguard human rights defenders and ensure meaningful public participation".

 

In the letter, Manushya Foundation, the Thai BHR Network, International Accountability Project (IAP), Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact, (AIPP),

International Rivers, FORUM-Asia and the Community Resource Centre (CRC) remind the RTG that human rights defenders (HRDs) play a key role in enabling the realisation of the right to development, and call for greater efforts from the government regarding their protection and promotion, especially land, environmental or indigenous peoples’ rights defenders, in its development interventions, at national and international levels, as well as relevant processes related to advancing human rights in business contexts.