Thai Lawyers for Human Rights
Bangkok, Thailand
As a recipient of the Kaufman Fellowship in Public Service, Akarachai will be working on the issues of
fair trial rights and freedoms of speech, expression, and/or assembly that affect human rights activists in Thailand. His primary task will be to provide legal assistance to individuals in Thailand who are prosecuted for criticizing the Thai government and/or the monarchy.
Prior to law school, Akarachai worked on a range of human rights issues at a global, regional, and
domestic levels. He worked in the Refugee Status Determination Section of UNHCR in Geneva, Asylum Access Thailand, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, and Destination Justice. His work involved advocating for refugee rights around the world and specifically in Thailand, prosecuting members of the Pol Pot regime for international crimes (e.g., genocide and crimes against humanity), and investigating human rights violations in Thailand for which the Thai government is responsible.
At law school, he spent his LL.M. year in the International Human Rights Clinic and the Harvard
Immigration and Refugee Clinic working on, inter alia, accountability litigation in The Gambia, the rights of refugees and minorities, and immigration reforms in the US. He also served as a member of the Submissions Committee of the Harvard Human Rights Journal. Akarachai graduated with a B.A. in Law from the University of Cambridge in 2018.