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Reclaiming Power: Frontline defenders turn evidence into action ahead of Thailand’s UPR IV & ICCPR Reviews
- Manushya Foundation
- 52 minutes ago
- 6 min read
BANGKOK, THAILAND – For marginalized communities across Thailand, evidence has never been the problem. They do not have to search far to document the state’s rights violations, as this is the reality they have lived in every day for years. The real problem is that their truths are too often filtered through institutions and professional gatekeepers before diplomats ever hear them. Now, frontline defenders are reclaiming that power and speaking for themselves.
From 21-23 July 2026, Manushya Foundation, together with Young Pride Foundation, the People’s Movement to Eliminate Discrimination (MovED), and LBTQ+ Well Being, convened fifty-five human rights defenders from across Thailand for the workshop, ‘From Evidence to Action: Strategic Advocacy for the UPR IV & ICCPR Reviews of Thailand’.
This three-day workshop built on a nationwide movement-building process that has brought together over 350 feminist activists and grassroots community leaders since October 2025. Through four regional workshops in Bangkok, Hat Yai, Chiang Mai, and Khon Kaen, followed by a national submissions workshop, communities documented violations and authored their own reports ahead of Thailand’s Fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR IV). The 55 defenders gathered in Bangkok serve as focal points for issues from across Thailand, carrying the demands of the wider people-led movement.
With the evidence submitted, we tackled the next urgent question:
How do we transform evidence into pressure, and pressure into real-world accountability?
Intersecting Identities, Interconnected Struggles
Of the 56 human rights defenders present, 22 identified as women and 19 as members of the LGBTIQ+ community. Their advocacies spanned Civil & Political Rights, Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, and Marginalized Communities' Rights.
The largest groups work on LGBTIQ+ rights (19 participants), anti-discrimination (14), and climate justice and corporate accountability (12). Others advanced access to healthcare (7); addressed civic and political rights issues, including enforced disappearances, torture, transnational repression, freedom of expression and assembly, and armed conflict in Patani/Thailand’s Deep South (6); advocated for Indigenous women’s rights (5); women’s rights and freedom from gender-based violence (5); and labour and migrant workers’ rights (5). Several pursued fair access to justice (4); safe abortion (3); mental health support (2); and education (2). These categories overlap because many defenders stand at several frontlines at once.
The workshop opened with welcoming messages from Manushya’s partners and board members. Asmah Tanyongdaoh, one of Manushya Foundation’s Board Members and a Muslim woman human rights defender, reflected on how engagement with Thailand’s UPR has transformed through the years.
"Before the people-led Thai CSOs Coalition for the UPR was founded in 2016, only a few of us were being ‘consulted.’ Now, we are a movement speaking up on our own issues, concerning our own lives, directly to the global stage.”
–Asmah Tanyongdaoh, Manushya Foundation's Board Member and woman human rights defender from Southern Thailand
On Day 1, participants distilled their long-form UPR submissions into concise advocacy factsheets for diplomats from UN Member States. These factsheets translate community evidence into urgent priorities and S.M.A.R.T. recommendations, handing diplomats verified facts without blunting the political sharpness of the communities’ demands.
Preparing communities to move diplomats to action
Day 2 moved from drafting advocacy factsheets to building direct diplomatic strategy. Participants first mapped the UN recommending states most likely to champion their issues, then trained in Manushya’s signature Lobbying Framework.
“UPR factsheets provide diplomats with the evidence they need. But in the room, it is your lived experience and authentic voice that bring that evidence to life. Help diplomats understand not only what needs to change, but why it matters, and how their recommendations can contribute to meaningful change.”
–Emilie Palamy Pradichit, Founder & Executive Director of Manushya Foundation, emphasised the power of human-centred storytelling alongside credible evidence.
Participants put the framework into practice through role-playing. Each group pitched to the plenary acting as diplomats, responded to difficult questions, and received real-time coaching to sharpen the clarity, confidence, and political strategy of their advocacy.
These simulations also confront a deeper power imbalance: diplomatic access has long been unequal. One of the workshop’s facilitators, Best, named that colonial dynamic directly:
“For too long, access to diplomats has been dominated by large Global North INGOs with colonial mindsets who take all the visibility and credit, while communities living these struggles were pushed to the margins. We are changing that now as a movement.”
—Best Chitsanupong Nithiwana, Founder of Young Pride Foundation and trans woman human rights defender
In every issue pitched, the same architecture of injustice emerged: laws written without communities’ participation, development imposed without free, prior, and informed consent, services denied to those most marginalized, and state power used to punish people who resist.
Pim Tanruthai Thanrut, a queer democracy defender and Manushya’s Protection & Programme Associate, moved the room to tears as she described the human cost of political repression. Pim invoked the memory of her close friend, the late youth activist Bung Netiporn, who died in pre-trial detention following a prolonged hunger strike against political incarceration:
“I should have been in prison with her already, and maybe the one who died would have been me, not her. How many more lives need to be sacrificed in prison? If Section 112 is not abolished, it could happen to any of you or to your children.”
—Pim Tanruthai Thanrut, queer democracy defender and Manushya Foundation’s Protection & Programme Associate
Elevating community truths to the ICCPR
On the final day, Day 3, defenders turned to another avenue to hold the Thai government accountable: the state’s next review under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a legally binding UN treaty monitored by the UN Human Rights Committee, composed of 18 independent UN experts.
Participants began drafting community-led shadow reports to influence Thailand’s upcoming List of Issues Prior to Reporting (LOIPR), which guides the questions the UN Human Rights Committee will put to the Thai government before it prepares its next periodic report.
“The law calls us invaders, but we were the first peoples to live in the forest. When Indigenous activists speak the truth, they face SLAPP lawsuits, intimidation, and enforced disappearance. If you want to protect nature, you must protect the people who live with it. We are the lungs of this country.”
—Katima Leeja, Lisu Indigenous woman human rights defender and one of Manushya Foundation’s Board Members
“People seeking abortions are mothers, members of the LGBTIQ+ community, heads of households, and people with low incomes. They can be anyone, but they are not criminals.”
—Chonthita Kraisrikul from abortion rights feminist group Tamtang Foundation
By linking the UPR and ICCPR advocacy pathways together, communities can exert pressure through two complementary pathways. A violation raised in one process can reinforce demands in the other, forcing the Thai government to face the same truths wherever it is reviewed.
Solidarity and Care at the Heart of Movement-Building
IN PHOTOS: As part of the Day 3 energiser activities, participants hold up signs that link campaign calls together, such as “Access to basic social services for the Moken Indigenous Peoples”, “Welfare for persons with disabilities and the elderly”, “Repeal Special Laws”, “Menstrual Leave is a Labour Right”, “Gender legal recognition NOW!”, and more.
Solidarity remains central to every Manushya gathering. Together, participants called for the passage of the Self-Determination of Gender Identity, Gender Expression, and Sex Characteristics Act, affirming the right of trans, non-binary, and intersex people to legal recognition, bodily autonomy, and dignity.
Care was woven throughout the programme through traditional Thai massage, coffee aromatherapy, and other wellbeing activities led by our trusted care partner, LBTQ+ Well Being. As decolonial and intersectional feminists, we recognise care as a radical strategy that sustains defenders in the long run amidst shrinking civic space and shrinking resources.
The Road Ahead: From Community Evidence to Global Pressure
The journey is far from over. Manushya and our partners will continue working alongside communities to finalise their UPR factsheets and prepare them to present their demands directly to diplomats during upcoming briefings in Bangkok, then in Geneva.
Alongside this, we will support frontline communities to produce credible community-led shadow reports for the UN Human Rights Committee, to strengthen efforts to hold Thailand accountable under the ICCPR.
We extend our deepest gratitude to Young Pride Foundation, MovED, LBTQ+ Well Being, and every defender who entered the space carrying the weight of their community’s struggle, and left carrying each other’s demands.
Communities have documented the violations and built their recommendations. The next step is to bring those truths directly to diplomats and UN experts, so that their demands can no longer be ignored. Our people-led UPR movement is ready. 💪
Want to see more moments from the workshop?
Check out our highlights from each workshop day!
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