The beginning of 2025 should have provided a fresh start for Thailand. The country began its three-year term as a member of the prestigious United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Jan 1, and the Paetongtarn Shinawatra government is eyeing related events.
The Interior Ministry is even hosting an event for the kingdom's Marriage Equality Act at the UN Convention Centre in Bangkok on Monday to showcase the government's readiness for the law ahead of its historic implementation on Jan 23.
However, the atmosphere has been dampened by the cold-blooded shooting of Lim Kimya, a leader of the now-defunct Cambodia National People's Rescue Party (CNRP), in Bangkok. Lim Kimya, also a French citizen, was a critical voice against the neighbouring country's Hun Sen government.
Former CNRP members had fled to other countries after its dissolution in 2017, fearing Hun Sen government suppression. However, Lim Kimya remained in Cambodia.
The murder was executed in a brazen manner, and the details are full of mystery.
It took place near Wat Bowonniwet Viharn in Bangkok's Phra Nakhon district in broad daylight, near the popular Khao San area.
Lim Kimya, along with his French wife and another family member, had just travelled from Cambodia's Siem Reap by bus and crossed into Thailand before the killing.
The suspected hitman, a discharged Thai navy sailor wanted on a court warrant for a previous crime, was arrested a day later in Cambodia after managing to cross the border.
Thai and Cambodian police are also hunting another suspect, a Cambodian national who allegedly travelled on the same bus as Lim Kimya before the shooting.
While it is premature to make any judgements, the killing has tarnished the image of Bangkok as a safe place for foreign tourists. Lim Kimya's gruesome death is an ominous sign for foreign political activists and human rights defenders campaigning in Thailand.
Even before Lim Kimya's death, these activists lived in fear as the Thai government, which manages one of the most democratic societies in the sub-region, had failed to provide a safe haven for them.
Many of them had been asylum seekers with UN refugee cards, waiting to go to a third country.
Since the latest coup in 2014, the government has caved to the demand of their authoritarian neighbours, sending back government opponents to their repressive homelands.
A glaring example of this was when the Prayut Chan-o-cha government returned 109 Uyghur men from immigration detention centres across Thailand in 2013 to China at Beijing's request.
Sadly, the departure of the junta government does not guarantee a better treatment of human rights.
Last year, under the current Pheu Thai-led government, immigration police began stepping up their surveillance of dissidents and asylum seekers from Mekong region countries.
In light of Thailand's UNHRC membership, the Paetongtarn government must do better.
The Thai and Cambodian governments must find the second suspect in the Lim Kimya case and catch who was behind his killing.
While enacting same-sex marriage laws is good for society, it is far from enough for a member of the UNHRC like Thailand.