Thailand seeks stricter controls over nonprofit groups

Thai activist Porntin Say Yom and her neighbours fought more than 10 years to shut down a gold mine in northeast Thailand’s Loei province.

“We successfully closed the gold mine because we came together as a group to defend our rights,” Yom said. 

But in late May, she joined hundreds of activists outside Bangkok’s United Nations office to protest another threat – a proposed law they fear will suppress freedom of association, especially for human rights activists.

The “Draft Act on the Operations of Not-for-Profit Organisations,” known colloquially as the NPO law, would allow the Thai government to exert unprecedented control over nonprofit groups, NGOs and activists say.

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JACK BROOK