(Hong Kong, July 30, 2010) The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) on Friday launched a new webpage on the state of emergency in Thailand.
The webpage, Thailand State of Emergency 2010, features a map showing provinces where the emergency remains in effect, and carries links to AHRC material as well as outside resources on the emergency decree.
The webpage can be accessed at: http://thailand.ahrchk.net/emergency2010/
“It looks as if the use of a state of emergency is set to become a permanent feature of political life in Thailand, to the detriment of human rights and the legal system,” Basil Fernando, director of the Hong Kong-based regional group said.
“Therefore, we decided to set up this page to keep a track of it, and to contribute to discussion on its consequences,” he said.
“There is a huge amount of global interest in what is going on in Thailand and the government should not think that it is going to dissipate just because people are not getting shot on the streets of Bangkok any more,” Fernando added, saying that he hoped the AHRC site would be one among many carrying news and analysis of the situation there.
The webpage is the second of its type that the AHRC has established. In 2005 it set up a page on the emergency decree in southern Thailand, which has since been renewed 18 times. A link to that site is available from the new page.
