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  • Writer's pictureManushya Foundation
    • Mar 24, 2023

💡#RightToTruthDay: What Happened to Wanchalearm Satsaksit?


💡Today is International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims.


🚩 Enforced disappearances is an example of a gross human rights violation, and can happen to anyone, regardless of age, gender, or ethnicity. Since 1980, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has recorded more than 59,600 cases across 112 countries. But what is meant by enforced disappearances? ⤵️


❓An enforced disappearance is either the arrest, detention, abduction, or any action that deprives an individual of liberty conducted by either agents of the state or by other people or groups who have the state's support, authorization, or acquiescence.


🌍 In 1980, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances was established with the aim of assisting the families of the disappeared individuals, identifying the status of their disappeared relatives, and helping states prevent and eliminate cases of enforced disappearances.


🚨 Wanchalearm Satsaksit, a prominent Thai activist and critic of the government and the monarchy, is a victim of enforced disappearance. Wanchalearm was forcibly disappeared from outside his home in Cambodia, where he was living in exile. In June 2020, he was abducted by a group of unidentified men, a day after posting a video criticising the Thai prime minister.


🔴 Almost three years later, his fate and whereabouts are still unknown. His family has the right to know what happened to him!


“I can’t breathe” – the last words of Wanchalearm, who was on the phone with his sister when he was abducted.


🤝 Manushya stands in solidarity with Wanchalearm, his family, and all the victims of enforced disappearances, and denounce Cambodia’s failure to conduct an independent and effective investigation into the enforced disappearance and the resulting impunity.


#WeAreManushyan ♾️ Equal Human Beings


✊ We also call on the Thai government to step up its efforts to find out the fate of the disappeared, pay reparations, and help bring closure to the families of the victims who deserve to know the truth.


🎨 Illustration by IG @x2nat

👉 While you're here, find out more about Manushya Foundation's work on enforced disappearance:

➡️ Joint Statement 'Laos: After 10 years, civil society worldwide is still asking: “Where is Sombath?”,' December 13, 2022

➡️ Thailand UPR III Factsheet on Torture and Enforced Disappearances, September 9, 2021

➡️ Joint Press Release 'Thailand: Until Enforced Disappearance Is A Crime Under Thai Law,

We Are All At Risk of Disappearing #ItCouldBeYou,' August 30, 2021

➡️ Joint Statement 'One Year Later, No Credible Investigation into the Enforced Disappearance of Wanchalearm Satsaksit,' June 4, 2021

➡️ Joint Statement 'Cambodia/Laos/Thailand/Vietnam: Address enforced disappearances, deliver justice for the victims and their families,' August 30, 2020

➡️ Joint Statement 'Civil society groups urge Laos, Thailand to investigate enforced disappearances, reveal fate of Sombath Somphone and Od Sayavong,' December 15, 2019

References:


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