- In 2009, with the help of non-government organizations and her own family, ANGKHANA founded Justice for Peace Foundation (JPF), a network of human rights and peace advocates that has done important work in documenting the human rights situation in southern Thailand, thus raising public awareness and putting pressure on government to act on human rights cases, providing legal assistance to victims; and training women on human rights and the peace process.
- In 2015, ANGKHANA was named commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand, the only Commission member with grassroots human rights experience.
- In her soft-spoken and measured tone, she asserts: “Most women experience conflict and violence in a different way than men.
- The RMAF board of trustees recognizes her unwavering courage in seeking justice for her husband and many other victims of violence and conflict in southern Thailand; her systematic, unflagging work to reform a flawed and unfair legal system, and the shining proof she is that the humblest ordinary person can achieve national impact in deterring human rights abuses.
Due to religious and ethnic conflict in southern Thailand, the resulting insurgency and militarization saw more than 6,000 people killed in the conflict since 2004. Some ninety percent of these were civilians, including the unsolved killings of civil society and human rights activists.
One of the more sensational of these killings was the “enforced disappearance” in 2004 of noted human rights lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit.
Until Somchai’s disappearance and death, his wife Angkhana was a housewife caring for their home, five children and a small business. Suddenly as his grieving widow, she was thrust into the human rights cause, seeking to bring his killers to justice—learning the laws, filing legal appeals, and navigating the Thai legal system.
She founded Justice for Peace Foundation (JPF), an organization that documents the human rights situation in southern Thailand, provides legal assistance to victims, and trains women on human rights and the peace process.
Appointed commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand in 2015, Angkhana worked on the rights of detainees to access their families and their lawyers, financial compensation for human rights victims, and protecting the exercise of freedom of expression and assembly. Lately she has taken on cases related to forced child marriages, trafficking of women, and the rights of asylum seekers and refugees.
Angkhana asserts, “Most women experience conflict and violence in a different way than men. They develop unique skills for resisting, addressing and preventing conflict. The work on justice and peace cannot afford to neglect the constructive contributions of women.”