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Published on December 9, 2007

A human rights lawyer and a factory worker turned public health campaigner were honoured with Outstanding Human Rights awards from the National Human Rights Commission yesterday.

To mark the International Human Rights Day on Monday, the NHRC presented its own Outstanding Human Rights Award to Somchai Homla-or and Somboon Seekham-dokkhae.

Lawyer Somchai Homla-or, 58, has played a vital role for over two decades in promoting and protecting human rights here and in neighbouring countries. He founded many local and regional human rights organisations including the Bangkok-based Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, the Asian Institute for Human Rights and the Thai Working Group for an Asean Human Rights Mechanism. He is also a senior legal adviser for the Asia-Pacific regional office of the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists.

Somchai graduated from Thammasat University and began his career in the human rights field in 1988.

Due to his role in protecting the rights of Cambodian refugees in Thailand, Somchai, then manager of the Union for Civil Liberty, was forced by the National Security Council to leave the country.

He spent his time in exile on legal training in South and Southeast Asian countries, and at Columbia University's Cambodian Documentation Commission.

Somchai has been working to promote human rights laws in Thailand as well as to provide legal assistance to victims of human rights violations, including migrant workers from bordering countries.

Somboon Seekham-dokkhae, 48, was recognised for her nearly two-decade struggle to promote the rights of victims of occupational-related illnesses.

Somboon herself suffers from byssinosis, which has destroyed 60 per cent of her lungs.

Due to her role as an active member in a labour union, Somboon was dismissed from her factory in 1997. That same year, she won the Ashoka Award bestowed on individuals devoted to social work.

Somboon decided to use the prize money to campaign for the health and security of workers.

She established the Workers' Network for sufferers of occupational illnesses to fight for compensation and a better workplace environment. The group has 3,000 members.

She has also been campaigning for the safety of factory workers.

The NHRC's Human Rights Award for outstanding organisation went to the Association of the Physically Handicapped of Thailand.