FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights) and The Sombath Initiative are holding a press conference and panel to mark 1,000 days of Sombath Somphone’s disappearance. The event will be held from 10:30 am on Friday 11th September at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand.
On the evening of December 15, 2015, police stopped prominent Lao civil society leader Sombath Somphone at a police checkpoint on a busy street of Vientiane. Shortly after being stopped, CCTV footage showed that unknown individuals forced Sombath into another vehicle and drove away while police looked on. Sombath was never seen again. His fate or whereabouts remain unknown to this day.
September 11, 2015, marks 1,000 days since Sombath disappeared. During these 1,000 days, what has been done to safely return Sombath? What have been the domestic and regional implications of his disappearance? What are the next steps?
A panel of four distinguished speakers will answer these questions and provide an update on the quest for truth and justice for Sombath Somphone’s disappearance.
Ms. Shui-Meng Ng is the spouse of Sombath Somphone and a member of the Advisory Board of the Sombath Initiative.
Mr. Kingsley Abbott is the International Legal Advisor for Southeast Asia for the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and a former Senior Legal Officer with the United Nations at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.
Ms. Angkhana Neelapaijit is the founder and President of the Justice for Peace Foundation (JPF), a member of the Advisory Board of the Sombath Initiative, and a nominee to the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRCT).
Ms. Debbie Stothard is the Secretary-General of FIDH, the Coordinator of ALTSEAN-Burma, and the Co-Chair of the ASEAN Peoples’ Forum/ASEAN Civil Society Conference (APF/ACSC) Media Committee.
