Showing 1 - 10 of 11
Key portals to Global Digital Compact
Oped, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 09/02/2024
» This year will witness the formulation and adoption of the UN-backed Global Digital Compact if all goes as planned. It will provide a policy framework for digital relations worldwide, although not yet equivalent to a binding treaty. What, then, are the stakes, the key portals to the digital future?
Thailand's interface with new FTAs
News, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 21/12/2023
» The power of data in the expanding panorama of digital trade is becoming an essential component of commercial relations, especially recent free trade areas (FTAs). As Thailand is now exploring new agreements on its western flank (such as with South Asia, Gulf countries and Europe) and on its eastern flank (such as with Pacific rim countries, interlinking with the Indian Ocean), what are some of the stakes deserving careful reflection?
Navigating the uncharted territory of AI
Oped, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 30/08/2023
» Artificial Intelligence (AI), alias robots, has captured the public imagination. Yet, the term "AI" can cover more than robots. Not only does AI embody technology that learns and digests data, exhibiting intelligence paralleling humans, but it is also now a major creative force. Generative AI can offer projections, predictions and propositions, potentially surpassing human intelligence. This leads to the question -- should AI be regulated, and how?
Celebrating human rights in 2023
Oped, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 02/02/2023
» This year is a time to remember and reiterate two key instruments which have shaped responses to human rights implementation since the end of World War II in 1945. It was the task of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), based on a Resolution of the UN General Assembly adopted in 1948, to identify and list a number of key rights of a global nature.
Rights under threat from emerging tech
News, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 16/11/2022
» A key challenge facing human rights globally today is the advent of emerging technologies that mutate rapidly and potentially beyond human control. The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva has thus singled out for special study during the next couple of years four areas of concern: autonomous weaponry, neurotechnology, cyberbullying, and green technology (inevitably linked with climate change). What are the prospects for enjoying the fruits of such technologies and pre-empting their negative implications?
Advocating for Afghan girls' education
Oped, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 20/10/2021
» Afghanistan is a rugged country of great beauty straddling Asia and Europe, and it has been the scene of warfare and contestation for decades. The Taliban, a group connected to extreme violence, especially in the late 1990s, emerged as the power in control of Afghanistan recently, due to the void left by outsiders. This is their second time in power and the world can remember all too well that from the mid-1990s until 2001, their rule at the time was harsh and brutal, especially in their clampdown on the rights of women and girls. The latter suffered immensely from a lack of access to school, while the former were also prevented from employment.
Child protection can unite Asean
News, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 09/10/2017
» Is the 50-year-old Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) still young at heart? Much of the Asean region in fact will be faced with an ageing population in the coming decades. Meanwhile, the interface between children and the protection of their rights will still be a pervasive challenge.
Is Asean reeling in stormy economic waters?
News, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 19/07/2015
» This is a catalytic year for Asean, the 10-country organisation born in 1967 to drive regional integration in Southeast Asia. It is the year when Asean will become entrenched in the form of three interconnected communities: The Asean Political Security Community (APSC), the Asean Economic Community and the Asean Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC). These are all underpinned by blueprints to be put into action by the end of the year.
Asean must boost protection work
News, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 01/07/2014
» A key achievement of the Charter of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in 2007 was to open the door to the establishment of a regional human rights body — an Asean human rights mechanism. Subsequently, the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) was set up pursuant to the Terms of Reference (TOR), adopted by Asean in 2009.
The AEC's success rests with its youth
News, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 20/08/2013
» The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) was born in 1967 and will soon mark its half-century. Ubiquitous is the rallying call for the year 2015 as a turning point for Asean's integration as a community. News about the Asean Economic Community (AEC) seems to be all around us _ on television, posters and mass transit adverts. Yet, the whole process begs the question: how does Asean as a 10-member regional organisation contribute to the lives of its people, including its youth?