• OPINION

  Can Asean deal with international crimes?

  News, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 03/09/2018

  » The issue of accountability for international crimes has come to the fore poignantly with the report of the UN's Independent International Fact-finding Commission on Myanmar. The Commission finds that there are reasonable grounds to believe that genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed in the country, particularly impacting on the Rohingya community in Rakhine state. Significantly, it calls upon Asean to "develop strategies to ensure accountability for perpetrators of crimes under international law, including through sustained engagement with Myanmar and support for an international justice mechanism".

• OPINION

  Time travelling with human rights

  News, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 03/07/2023

  » If humanity had to travel with human rights (past, present and future), what might be pivotal dates interplaying with our destiny? 1993, 2005, 2023 and 2033 might well be candidates for testing our recent chronology.

• OPINION

  Lessons from the Khmer Rouge tribunal

  Oped, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 18/02/2023

  » One of the saddest episodes of Southeast Asian history was the period during the 1970s that witnessed the rule of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. The group was driven by a warped ideology, and it perpetrated myriad crimes against the general population. Millions were killed and displaced through a range of atrocities. Decades later, an internationally supported tribunal, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), or the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, was set up to prosecute the leaders of the group, and it is now ending its work. What are some of the key lessons the global community can learn from this?

• OPINION

  Ukraine, the UN and the ties that bind

  News, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 21/01/2023

  » The United Nations (UN) represents the pinnacle of the post-Second World War system. But just how effective is it today in the face of the crisis facing Ukraine, triggered by its next door neighbour Russia?

• OPINION

  Heed the global messages against discrimination

  News, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 03/02/2022

  » The past couple of months have seen two global developments sending strong messages against discrimination and exclusion. On Jan 13, the UN General Assembly adopted by consensus a key resolution against denial of the Holocaust, advocating stronger action against such a refutation on an international level.

• OPINION

  Thais leaving their mark in the law

  News, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 20/12/2021

  » In 2021 Thailand benefited from at least two good pieces of news in regard to international law, a subject closely interlinked with international relations.

• OPINION

  A multi-track strategy for North Korea

  Oped, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 01/09/2021

  » North Korea or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has been a conundrum for the international community for over half a century. Cloistered and undemocratic, the power base keeps a tight rein over its population with heavy surveillance and pervasive constraints. The latest news that recently it restarted to activate its nuclear facility at Yongbyon is most disturbing, as the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has already imposed sanctions on the country to end its nuclearisation. Is there any strategy to deal with the country in an engaging manner?

• OPINION

  Solidarity needed to halt crisis

  News, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 16/03/2021

  » The desperate situation in Myanmar calls for concerted international solidarity to counter the Feb 1 coup d'etat and its heinous consequences. To date, scores of people have been killed by junta forces, while several thousands have been detained. The crisis compounds two disquieting situations of a longstanding and multi-faceted nature in the country -- the mistreatment of the Rohingya population (a Muslim community) and the decades-long civil war between the authorities and different ethnic groups.

• OPINION

  Covid-19 curbs must heed rights

  News, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 26/05/2020

  » One of the key developments globally and in Thailand, in regard to measures taken to counter the spread of Covid-19, is the ascendancy of executive power and its implications for human rights.

• OPINION

  Protecting migrants, refugees in our age of conflict

  News, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 07/01/2020

  » There are about 270 million international migrants today who cross borders in search of new vistas. Many such as "expatriates" do well. However, many, particularly those who are pushed out of their homes, are caught in a trap of dislocation, dispossession and coercion, often due to armed conflicts, discrimination and violence. The number of forced migrants now stands at about 70 million people globally -- some 30 million who cross borders as "refugees" and some 40 million forced to move in their country of origin as "internally displaced persons".

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