<p>After anti-junta activists urged the court of justice not to let military courts try civilians, the Thai junta responded by pointing out that special security measures are needed to maintain national security and warned activists that a planned rally might be viewed as creating a situation.</p> <p>Col Winthai Suwaree, the spokesperson of the junta’s National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) on Friday stated that extra security measures are needed to maintain national security under the current volatile circumstances and that the standards of the military and civil courts are the same.</p>

<p>The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in&nbsp;Thailand.</p> <p>Description of the situation&nbsp;:</p>

<p>Pro-democracy activists charged with defying the Thai junta’s orders have submitted a statement to the court of justice, urging the judicial authorities not to let military courts try civilians. &nbsp;</p> <p>Four activists from&nbsp;<a href="http://www.prachatai.org/english/category/resistant-citizen">Resistant Citizen</a>, a pro-democracy activist group, on Thursday afternoon submitted a statement to Bangkok’s Ratchadaphisek Criminal Court to call for the court of justice to resist the junta’s orders in letting military courts try civilian defendants.</p>

<p>BANGKOK (11 March 2015) -The United Nations Human Rights Office for South East Asia (OHCHR) is concerned that the rights of poor communities in maintaining access to land and livelihood are not being upheld and urges the Government to comply with its international human rights obligations in pursuing its land polices.</p>

<p><span>(New York, March 12, 2015) –&nbsp;</span><a href="http://hrw.pr-optout.com/Tracking.aspx?Data=HHL%3d8%2c57%3a9-%3eLCE593719%26SDG%3c90%3a.&amp;RE=MC&amp;RI=4369775&amp;Preview=False&amp;DistributionActionID=73763&amp;Action=Follow+Link" target="_blank">Japan</a><span>’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon should press&nbsp;</span><a> </a></p>

<p>Police in southern Thailand accepted a lèse majesté complaint filed against two Facebook users for allegedly posting messages defaming the monarchy on a red-shirt radio host’s Facebook profile.</p> <p>Lt Col Jongserm Preecha, an inquiry officer at Kathu Police Station in the southern province of Phuket on Saturday accepted a lèse majesté complaint filed against two individuals known by their Facebook names as Chaida Bunyothin and Parichat Klinsrisuk. The complaint was filed by Siharat Thinkhaonoi.</p>

<p>The military forced a public seminar on martial law in northern Thailand to be cancelled due to its sensitive political content. &nbsp;</p> <p>Military officers from the 3rd Army in the northern province of Chiang Mai on Wednesday contacted the organizers of a public seminar entitled “Directions of Civil Society Organisations under the National Council of Peace and Order (NCPO)” to cancel the seminar.</p> <p>The military claimed that they are concerned because the seminar was related to the political situation under the junta’s NCPO as the seminar title suggested.</p>

<p><img alt="" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7459/16361048977_d010a2c223.jpg" /></p> <p><em><span>Panitan Watanayagorn is currently adviser to General Prawit Wongsuwan, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister.</span></em></p>

<p>Thai military has ordered the eviction of villagers in Isan accused of trespassing on a public land plot, despite an ongoing settlement process with the local authorities.</p> <p>The Thai military on Thursday ordered the villagers of Bua Daeng Subdistrict in Pathum Rat District of the northeastern province of Roi Et to sign a document stating that they will leave the area by Friday, according to the Land Reform Network of Isan (LRNI), a civil society organization affiliated with the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/pmovethai">People’s Movement for Just Society (P-Move)</a>.</p>

<p>(New York, February 13, 2015) –&nbsp;<a href="http://hrw.pr-optout.com/Tracking.aspx?Data=HHL%3d8%2c50%404-%3eLCE593719%26SDG%3c90%3a.&amp;RE=MC&amp;RI=4432086&amp;Preview=False&amp;DistributionActionID=72545&amp;Action=Follow+Link">Thailand</a>’s lawmakers should reject a proposed revision to the Military Court Act that would broadly empower the armed forces to detain civilians without charge for nearly three months, Human Rights Watch said today.<br /></p>

<p>A civil society group submitted a complaint urging the government to solve land conflicts between poor urban communities and private landowners after the poor were threatened with lawsuits and evictions. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>