"Arnon Nampa" Becomes The First Thai Recipient of 2025 Front Line Defenders Award in Dublin

“Arnon Nampa” Becomes The First Thai Recipient of 2025 Front Line Defenders Award in Dublin

On 22 May 2025, in Dublin, Ireland, human rights lawyer Arnon Nampa was awarded the Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk for 2025 by the organization Front Line Defenders. He was recognized for his role in promoting and protecting human rights despite facing danger and serious risks to his own personal safety.

Arnon Nampa becomes the first Thai national to receive this award. In the past, several human rights defenders from Asia—such as those from China, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and the Philippines—have received this accolade, but never before has it been awarded to someone from Thailand.

This year, the Front Line Defenders Award was given to human rights defenders from five global regions:

Africa: Luc Agblakou of Hirondelle Club International (Benin)

Americas: The Movement for Human Rights, Peace and Global Justice (MONDHA) (Dominican Republic / Haiti)

Asia and the Pacific: Arnon Nampa of Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (Thailand)

Europe and Central Asia: Sharifa Madrakhimova (Uzbekistan)Middle East and North Africa: Mhamed Hali (Western Sahara)

At the award ceremony, Ms. Pathomporn Kaewnoo, representing Arnon’s family, accepted the award on his behalf. Arnon was unable to attend as he remains in detention under Section 112 (lèse-majesté) of the Thai Criminal Code. He has been detained at the Bangkok Remand Prison for over 605 days.

Ms. Pathomporn read a letter from Arnon, in which he expressed his heartfelt gratitude for the award.

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It is a profound honor and deeply moving to receive this prestigious award. More than that, I feel immensely empowered for the road ahead—a path shrouded in darkness, echoing with the roars of demons that bear the name of the old order.

My friends and I were born and raised in the old order, like birds born and raised in a cage. Our ancestors were oppressed and deceived by outdated and irrational beliefs. The power of the old order created propaganda to indoctrinate us—and often coerced us—into believing that human beings are not born equal, but that one group of people is destined to rule while others are born to be ruled.

Our ancestors tried to rise up and challenge those beliefs. They worked to carve out a new path and push for change, time and again—sometimes falling, sometimes rising—but their efforts never ceased, never faded. The struggle against the old order has been passed down, generation by generation, until it has reached our time.

Today, efforts to challenge the old order are taking place across the world. In an era where oppression grows ever more brazen, expanding its reach to erode human dignity and suppress freedom of expression and resistance in all its forms, there is a concerted effort to drag us back to the old world—and to prevent a new one from ever taking shape.

In my country, too, freedom of expression is strictly forbidden. Repression is routine—ranging from killings and enforced disappearances to arbitrary charges, imprisonment, political disenfranchisement, and the systematic silencing of those who do not conform to the old order. And yet, we do not submit.

In 2020, we rose up under the name Ratsadon 2020 to carry forward the struggle of our ancestors. Political demonstrations and online expression spread widely and boldly, driven by the belief that freedom and equality can only be achieved through resistance. That uprising awakened people in my society. It shattered the illusions constructed by the old order—illusions used to blind and oppress us. Through this struggle, we have grown stronger. Every wound has hardened our resolve. Every fall has made us steadier on our feet.

This award is not a medal to pin on the wings of a bird—it is the wind beneath them, the force that lifts us as we soar toward victory. Come then! Come, all obstacles—all the threats and roaring voices—come at us! We will fight, and we will end this struggle in our generation!

With gratitude, conviction, and faith.

Arnon Nampa

Bangkok Remand Prison

8 May 2025

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