UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th October, 2020) The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Thailand has been closely monitoring the ongoing protests in the country and stresses the need to allow people to exercise the right to peacefully demonstrate, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a press briefing on Friday.
"We've been monitoring the situation closely, in fact, on the ground, our colleagues from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights have been observing the protests, routinely engaging with the authorities," Dujarric said. "People should be allowed to exercise the right to demonstrate freely and peacefully."
Protests in the otherwise peaceful Southeast Asian country are now in their third month, with thousands of pro-democracy citizens calling for large-scale constitutional reform.
The protesters demand the dissolution of what they call Chan-o-cha's military dictatorship, which took over in a bloodless coup in 2014 but has since remodeled itself into a civilian type. They also call for a limitation of the monarchy's power and to scrap the strict laws prohibiting criticism of the king.
