<p><a href="http://www.prachatai.com/english/category/human-rights-watch-hrw">Human Rights Watch</a> (HRW) is the Thai junta’s least favourite international human rights non-governmental organization, just below <a href="http://www.prachatai.com/english/category/amnesty-international-ai">Amnesty International</a> (AI). HRW’s 2017 report, covered in this recent Prachatai English <a href="http://www.prachatai.com/english/node/6836">news report</a>, which includes some choice quotes from Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, is quite damning.</p>

<p>Thai authorities should immediately release a prominent pro-democracy activist charged for a Facebook posting under laws intended to protect Thailand’s monarchy, Human Rights Watch said today. Jatupat (Pai) Boonphatthararaksa faces up to 15 years in prison for lese majeste (insulting the monarchy) charges initiated by the military.</p>

<p>Burmese authorities should urgently provide information on the whereabouts and well-being of two ethnic Kachin Baptist leaders who were apparently forcibly disappeared in Northern Shan State, Human Rights Watch and Fortify Rights said today. Langjaw Gam Seng, 35, and Dumdaw Nawng Lat, 65, who had guided journalists reporting on Burmese airstrikes that allegedly severely damaged a Catholic church, were last seen on December 24, 2016 traveling to a military base.&nbsp;</p>

<p><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2017/country-chapters/thailand&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1484371810434000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF9omGwWNeRqIbU8qqFxFlei5tBjw" href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2017/country-chapters/thailand" target="_blank">Thailand</a>’s military junta increased its repression and failed to restore democratic rule in 2016, Human Rights Watch said today in its&nbsp;<a> </a></p>

<p>The&nbsp;<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.hrw.org/asia/burma&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1482562605805000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFZeUzc5ZEnIoNH0zAMaHyBEI9N4w" href="https://www.hrw.org/asia/burma" target="_blank">Burmese</a>&nbsp;military has conducted a campaign of arson, killings, and rape against ethnic Rohingya that has threatened the lives of thousands more, Human Rights Watch said today.</p>

<p>The&nbsp;<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.hrw.org/asia/laos&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1481855949437000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEh02e8dmnG2-4oiAoAD10BZIzIJg" href="https://www.hrw.org/asia/laos" target="_blank">Lao</a>&nbsp;government has made no progress accounting for civil society leader Sombath Somphone, who was forcibly disappeared on December 15, 2012, Human Rights Watch said today. Four years after he was stopped at a police checkpoint in the capital, Vientiane, the government needs to provide information on his fate or whereabouts.<br /></p>

<p><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.hrw.org/video-photos/satellite-imagery/2016/12/09/burma-satellite-imagery&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1481694102952000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHRKGwM0icZSySCtnQjyHD566-nwg" href="https://www.hrw.org/video-photos/satellite-imagery/2016/12/09/burma-satellite-imagery" target="_blank">Satellite imagery</a>&nbsp;and interviews with refugees place responsibility for burnings of Rohingya villages in Burma’s Rakhine State squarely with the Burmese military, Human Rights Watch said today.</p>

<p>The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hrw.org/asia/burma" target="_blank">Burmese</a>&nbsp;government should allow human rights monitors and independent journalists prompt and unfettered access to northern Rakhine State to investigate alleged widespread property destruction and other rights abuses against ethnic Rohingya, Human Rights Watch said today.<br /></p>

<p>The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hrw.org/asia/burma" target="_blank">Burmese</a>&nbsp;government should invite the United Nations to participate in a thorough and impartial investigation into deadly attacks on police and subsequent allegations of summary killings, sexual violence, and other rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims in northern Rakhine State, Human Rights Watch said today.&nbsp;<br /></p>

<p>Alleged separatist insurgents detonated a bomb in southern&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hrw.org/asia/thailand">Thailand</a>&nbsp;outside a school that killed a man and his daughter, Human Rights Watch said today. The deliberate attack on the school, a civilian structure, amounts to a war crime and denies children their right to education.</p>

<p>The United States government should keep in place sanctions on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hrw.org/asia/burma" target="_blank">Burma</a>&nbsp;to deter the Burmese military from derailing democratic reforms, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch has learned that the Obama administration plans to announce the lifting of key sanctions during Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s visit to Washington, DC, which begins on September 14, 2016.<br /></p>