UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UNCERD) expresses serious concerns about the situation of the Karen people evicted from Kaeng Krachan

In an unusually strongly worded formal communication to the Royal Thai Government, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UNCERD) has expressed its serious concerns regarding the eviction of Karen communities from the area of Kaeng Krachan National Park, and the subsequent nomination of the park as part of a World Heritage Site. The concern was expressed in the context of an increasingly hostile judiciary, with two court cases in 2016 ruling against the right of Karen to remain and reside in their lands, where those lands have been incorporated into national parks or other conservation zones.