Showing 1 - 7 of 7
Re-energising higher education in Asean
News, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 22/12/2025
» Higher education, implying the tertiary level associated with universities and parallel institutions, is at an inflexion point in Southeast Asia, where the trajectory of socio-political, economic and cultural development is changing rapidly.
Legal hurdles after same-sex marriage
Oped, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 06/11/2025
» With the great news of the same-sex marriage law in Thailand comes another question -- how to facilitate the lives of couples, especially when one of them is not a Thai national. Two lingering and nagging issues concern the acquisition of nationality and the channels for adopting a child.
Reimagining human rights and China?
News, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 23/09/2024
» Should human rights be reimagined, especially in the context of China? From one angle, the answer is obvious. Plenty of norms are already agreed upon globally without the need for reimagination, and China is part of that universality. Yet given the situation on the ground level and the evolving nature of human rights, there might be room for some innovative reimagination, and this deserves balanced reflection.
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.
Migration and climate change in Asia
Oped, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 17/03/2022
» The close connection between migration, human rights and climate change is increasingly self-evident, as "natural disasters" related to that linkage loom in many parts of the world. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) estimates that about 22.5 million people migrate each year within and across borders because of climate change and weather-linked disasters. These are all compounded by the spread of Covid-19 in terms of lockdowns and other restrictive measures.
Re-balancing reflections on Human Rights Day
News, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 10/12/2020
» Dec 10 is International Human Rights Day, coinciding with Thailand's Constitution Day. It recalls particularly a seminal event: the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the UN in 1948. This has propelled many human rights standards against which the record at the national level is measured. Not only did it entrench the universality of human rights -- the premise that there are international standards, backed by a range of declarations and treaties, applying globally, but also the indivisibility of human rights -- the connectivity between civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.
High stakes as regime considers rights
News, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 19/02/2018
» A pre-Chinese New Year present from the government was Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's proclamation of the government's human rights agenda to complement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Thailand's "4.0" target to become a more developed society. Beyond the formalities, what are some of the stakes?