The following is a letter just published by CIVICUS, an international non-profit organisation, addressed to Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha regarding what it describes as “lawsuits brought by Thammakaset Company Limited against human rights defenders”. The letter was signed by a long list of activist organizations (see the list below) and the letter outlines the current situation very well. Take a look:

Dear Prime Minister Prayut,

The 89 undersigned organizations write to express our deep concern regarding recent spurious complaints brought by Thammakaset Company Limited against several human rights defenders in Thailand.

We respectfully urge the Thai government to take immediate action to oppose and seek the dismissal of cases filed by Thammakaset that run counter to your government’s proclaimed policy to support business and human rights as well as Thailand’s interests, legal obligations, and international human rights law commitments.

To date, Thammakaset—a Thai-owned poultry company in Lopburi Province— has filed no fewer than 13 criminal and civil complaints against a number of human rights defenders, including former employees. While Thai authorities and courts have dismissed most of the complaints, some are still pending and, in November 2018, a company representative pledged to bring more complaints.

In December 2018, Thai authorities summoned 14 former employees of Thammakaset, all migrant workers, to acknowledge complaints by the company, alleging that the workers “wrongly filed a false case with officials and caused damage to another [person or entity].” Lopburi Province police also called Suthasinee Kaewleklai, the Thailand Coordinator of the Migrant Workers Rights Network (MWRN)—an advocacy group that supports migrant rights in Thailand—to report to the police on January 28, 2019 to discuss a separate complaint by Thammakaset against her. On the same day, the Lopburi Province police requested information from witnesses as part of an investigation into complaints brought by Thammakaset at the end of 2018 against six individuals relating to activity on social media.

Thammakaset’s criminal complaints stem from its former 14 employees’ involvement in reporting labor rights abuses to the Department of Labor Protection and Welfare (DLPW) and the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRCT) in 2016. In separate investigations, both DLPW and the NHRCT found evidence of labor rights abuses, including that Thammakaset failed to pay minimum and overtime wages and failed to provide adequate leave to workers as required by law. On January 15, 2019, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s order requiring Thammakaset to pay 1.7 million Thai Baht (US$51,470) in compensation to the 14 former employees for violations of Thailand’s Labor Protection Act.

Thammakaset recently brought additional legal complaints against human rights defenders involved in publicly reporting on labor rights abuses and employer reprisals against the workers. As of October 2018, Nan Win, a former Thammakaset employee, faces new criminal defamation charges for speaking out on the alleged labor abuses and reprisals against the 14 former employees in a film produced by the human rights organization Fortify Rights and during a Facebook-live press conference that Fortify Rights organized. Sutharee Wannasiri, a former human rights specialist with Fortify Rights, also faces criminal and civil defamation charges for sharing Fortify Rights’ film on social media. The Bangkok Criminal Court is scheduled to consider the complaints against Nan Win and Sutharee Wannasiri on February 4 and March 11, 2019, respectively, and the Civil Court scheduled hearings in August 2019 to consider the civil complaint against Sutharee Wannasiri.

Read the full letter here and take a look at this impressive list of organizations who signed it:

1. Aksi! for Gender, Social and Ecological Justice, Indonesia
2. American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
3. Amnesty International
4. Anti-Slavery International
5. Article 19
6. ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights
7. Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development
8. Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM), Hong Kong
9. Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network
10. Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
11. Assembly of the Poor, Thailand
12. Australian Council of Trade Unions
13. Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI)
14. Bune United Sisters, Tombil Community, Minj , Jiwaka Province, PNG
15. Burma Campaign UK
16. Business & Human Rights Resource Center
17. Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights (CENTRAL)
18. Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR), Philippines
19. Chab Dai
20. CIVICUS
21. Civil Rights Defenders
22. Coalition for the Rights of Refugees and Stateless Persons
23. Community Resource Centre Foundation
24. Conservation International
25. Cross Cultural Foundation
26. Danish Ethical Trading Initiative
27. Environmental Justice Foundation
28. Ethical Trading Initiative
29. Ethical Trading Initiative Denmark
30. Ethical Trading Initiative Norway
31. FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
32. FishWise
33. Fortify Rights
34. Foundation for Education and Development (FED)
35. Free the Slaves
36. Freedom Fund
37. Freedom United
38. Frontline Defenders
39. GABRIELA Alliance of Filipino Women, Philippines
40. Global Coalition on Migration
41. Global Legal Action Network
42. Global Migration Policy Associates
43. Greenpeace
44. Highlands Women Human Right Defenders Movement, PNG
45. Human Rights and Development Foundation
46. Human Rights Lawyers Association
47. Human Rights Now
48. Human Rights Watch
49. Humanity United Action
50. IJM Foundation (มูลนิธิไอเจเอ็ม)
51. Indonesian Migrant Workers Union, Indonesia
52. International Accountability Project
53. International Labor Rights Forum
54. Kabar Bumi (Indonesian Migrant Workers Union), Indonesia
55. Korea Center for United Nations Human Rights Policy (KOCUN), the Republic of Korea
56. Kugar Farmers Association, Kudjip, BANZ, Jiwaka Province, PNG
57. LawAid International
58. Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada
59. Liberty Shared
60. Manushya Foundation
61. MAP Foundation
62. MARUAH, Singapore
63. Migrant Workers Rights Network
64. National Alliance of Women Human Rights Defenders (NAWHRD), Nepal
65. National Indigenous Women Forum (NIWF), Nepal
66. NEthing, India
67. North Whagi Country’s Women Association, Jiwaka Province, PNG
68. Oxfam
69. RITES Forum, India
70. Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
71. Rural Women Association Alga, Kyrgyzstan
72. Shan Women’s Action Network
73. Slave Free Seas
74. Social accountability international
75. SRED, India
76. Stop the Traffik Australian Coalition
77. Suara Perempuan Desa (Rural Women’s Voices), Indonesia
78. SwedWatch
79. Tarangini Foundation, Nepal
80. Thai Lawyers for Human Rights
81. Trades Union Congress
82. Uniting Church of Australia (Synod of Victoria and Tasmania)
83. Verité
84. Voice
85. Voice for Change, Jiwaka Province, PNG
86. Walk Free Foundation
87. We Women Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka
88. Women’s League of Burma
89. World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders