The Human Rights and Development Foundation

admin | August 26, 2009 | About | No Comments

Human Rights and Development Foundation(HRDF)

The Human Rights and Development Foundation was established as a Foundation following the orders of the Office of the National Culture Council in 2000. It was established by human rights academics and a human rights lawyer.

Objectives:

1.To promote and protect human rights, democracy and peace;

2.To strengthen the standards on human rights, democracy and peace whilst promoting and acting to translate the said principles into practice;

3.To support development which promotes and protects human rights, democracy and peace;

4.To promote and safeguard quality of environment, sustainable use of natural resources and people’s rights in this regard;

5.To safeguard consumers’ rights and oppose unfair business or trade competition;

6.To coordinate and collaborate with concerned individuals and organizations committed to human rights issues, either governmental or non-governmental, working to achieve the above-mentioned objectives,

7.To organize educational and training programmes; to disseminate data and information; to organize meetings or conferences, seminars, symposiums and hears; to produce fact-finding reports and/or situation reports, observation reports on elections, reports on observation of trials and court proceedings; to file petitions or complaints; to provide legal aid or to take legal actions and to undertake any litigation in order to achieve the above mentioned objectives.

HRDF Executive Committee

Dr. Gothom Arya Chairperson
Member of National Legislative Council, Thailand
Mahidol University Research Center for Peace Building, Thailand

M.R. Prudhisan Jumbala Vice Chairperson
Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

Mr. Somchai Homlaor Member/ Secretary
Human Rights Lawyer

Mrs. Songphorn Tajaroensuk Member/ Treasurer
Institute of Social Technology, Suranaree University

Mr. Withaya Sucharithanarurgse Member

Mr. Nicholas Bennett Member

Activities :

HRDF Legal Aid Center

Established Mae Sot Labor Law Clinic, Tak Province working in cooperation with government agencies and private sectors to promote and protect the human rights of labor, to increase the standard of human rights of Thai labor and migrant workers in Mae Sot and surrounding areas, to provide legal aid and to provide knowledge and understanding on labor law and human rights to migrant workers.

Legal Consultancy ; providing legal aid to Thai labor and migrant workers in Mae Sot and surrounding areas in cooperation with Labor Offices, Police Officers, Employers and Federation of Industrial

Facilitate capacity building of Thai and Burmese NGOs; Para Legal training, Training of Trainers and producing a manual on human rights of migrant labor in Thai, English and Burmese language.

Provide assistance on test cases ; to assist in the court to promote and strengthen human rights of labor and advocacy for reforms in labor law and policy.

Facilitate harmonious relations between community in Mae Sot and Burmese Organizations and migrant workers; to organize the Unite Thai-Burma Cultural Fair and promote ethnic understanding.

Making Migrant Safety at Work Matter

The field work are in Chiangmai and Mae Sot, Tak Province.

Aims:

To empower migrant workers from Burma to reduce work related injuries, diseases and deaths in their communities, through effectively controlling workplace hazards.

To improving migrant worker occupational health and safety (OHS) conditions through facilitating the control of migrant workplace hazards.

To capacity building on OHS issues, that ensures greater migrant OHS awareness and knowledge to a migrant led action research project

Advocacy work ; use reliable research data with relevant partners to improve migrant worker’s OHS situation, work closely with the Labour Law Clinic (Mae Sot) and the Centre for the Protection and Restitution of the Rights of Communities in Chiangmai Province, as well as with the Lawyers Council of Thailand, in taking test cases ( Test work-related death, injury and disease compensation cases and Exploratory social security cases to set precedents for future systematized migrant work-related accident and death compensation claims and access to social security benefits through the Social Security Office.

Foundation Networks:

The National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRC)

Human Rights Committee of the Lawyers Council of Thailand (LCT)

Environmental Litigation and Advocacy for Wants (Enlaw)

Thai Labor Solidarity Committee (TLSC)

The State Enterprise Workers Relation Confederation (SERC)

Center for Aids Rights (CAR)

Labour Rights Promotion Network (LPN)

Affiliated Organizations:

Asian Institute for Human Rights (AIHR)

Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL)

Altsean – Burma