Famed as a beacon for justice since her husband, a human rights lawyer, was forcibly disappeared in Bangkok 20 years ago, Angkhana Neelapaijit now finds herself in a unique position within a new Senate reportedly dominated by politically affiliated members.
Angkhana is the only independent senator to have secured the chair of one of the powerful 21 Upper House standing committees.
The remaining top seats all went to senators with reported links to the Bhumjaithai Party, the second-largest partner in the ruling coalition. Bhumjaithai-linked senators form a comfortable majority in the 200-member Senate.
Angkhana, 68, was appointed chair of the committee on political development, public participation and human rights after a vote by its 18 members was tied 50:50 between Angkhana and former Samut Sakhon governor Weerasak Wijitsaengsri.
The two then agreed to settle the contest by drawing lots, and Weerasak came up with the short straw.
A stroke of luck
Her supporters credited Angkhana’s win to the backing of independent senators on the panel, along with a dose of luck.
Angkhana, who is known as a human rights activist and former member of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), claimed certain fellow committee members had asked her to withdraw from the contest. She said, too, that senators had lobbied her supporters on the panel to vote against her.
“This is a shameful act for any senator. There should be no pressure for anyone to submit or withdraw. I find this issue worrying,” she said.
Angkhana’s supporters, including Senator Pornchai Witayalerdpan, confirmed there were attempts to lobby committee members, with some being offered key positions in a second committee or one of the subcommittees.
Members of the current Upper House, who were selected via an internal election among 20 occupational groups, began their five-year term in July.
Nursing career cut short by tragedy
Born on March 23, 1956, Angkhana graduated from Mahidol University's Faculty of Nursing in 1980 and launched her career as a nurse at Siriraj Hospital.
In March 2004 her life was turned upside down when her husband, human rights lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit, was forcibly disappeared while defending suspects in Thailand’s insurgency-wracked deep South. He was last seen being dragged from his car in Bangkok.
Five police officers were charged in connection with Somchai’s disappearance, but they were acquitted in 2015 due to insufficient evidence, including the absence of a body.
Human rights defender
Stunned by the loss of her husband to a decades-old conflict between the Thai state and Malay-Muslim separatists in Thailand’s four southernmost provinces, Angkhana embarked on a new career in human rights.
In 2006, she was awarded South Korea's Gwangju Prize for Human Rights, which honours individuals, groups or institutions in South Korea and abroad that have contributed to promoting and advancing rights, democracy and peace through their work. She earned further international plaudits the same year, recognised among "Women Human Rights Defenders" by the European Union.
In 2009, Angkhana founded the Justice for Peace Foundation, a network of human rights and peace advocates documenting abuses in southern Thailand.
She also served as chairwoman of the Working Group for Justice and Peace, a Bangkok-based NGO investigating allegations of human rights violations in the Muslim-majority southern border region.
In March 2011, Angkhana received the Asian Human Rights Commission's Human Rights Defender Award on her husband's behalf, simultaneously earning praise as "an articulate and courageous spokesperson for the families of disappeared persons in Thailand".
She served as a member of Thailand's National Human Rights Commission between November 2015 and July 2019. Amnesty International described her as "a leading human rights defender in southern Thailand".
In March – 20 years after her husband’s forcible disappearance – Angkhana disclosed that the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) had informed the family in 2016 that his case had been closed due to a lack of evidence. She expressed doubt that authorities were serious about bringing those responsible to justice.
‘Asia’s Nobel Prize’
In 2019, Angkhana was bestowed the Ramon Magsaysay Award, regarded as the “Nobel Prize of Asia”. The award’s Philippines-based board of trustees said it recognised her “unwavering courage in seeking justice for her husband and many other victims of violence and conflict in southern Thailand”.
In her acceptance speech, Angkhana said: “My honour today as Magsaysay awardee has shown the story of an ordinary woman’s struggle for justice, democracy and the rule of law – and this is a big change for women, for families, and for the nation.”
In April 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Council appointed her to the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances.
