INTERVENTION Kitprasert Nopparat People's Empowerment Foundation, Thailand Agenda Item 6 : Consideration of future opportunities and initiatives for raising awareness of the Declaration, and ensuring its practical implementation Thank you Madame Chair. My name is Kitprasert Nopparat. I represent the People's Empowerment Foundation, an NGO based in Bangkok, Thailand. While we are now addressing our views and concerns before the Forum, some of our friends both in this room and at home are not able to speak, for fear of being threatened by their government. Our friends, minority rights activists, who have put their efforts to protect and promote the issues of minority rights have become one of the most vulnerable groups facing danger and violence in their daily life. In the past, minority rights defenders attending this Forum, did not feel they could safely raise their concerns in the Forum and have returned home carrying threats from authorities in their countries. Minority rights defenders face threats to themselves for the activities they conduct for the protection of minority rights. Malayu Muslim Minority activists working in Thailand's Southern Border Provinces, for instance, have been closely monitored by state officials. Both Martial Law' and the Emergency Decree on Public Administration in Emergency 20052 give the military sweeping power leading to several cases of arbitrary detention, ' A v ailable at http:l/www.ic rc .org/ihlnat.ns f/6 fa4 d3 5 e5 e3 0 2 5 3 9 4 1 2 5 6 7 3 e0 0 5 0 8 1 4 3