Angkhana Neelapaijit, who resigned as human rights commissioner two days ago, has been awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award.
Mrs Angkhana, 63, was lauded for “championing justice, case after painful case,” according to the foundation’s website.
Other awardees are Ko Swe Win from Myanmar, Ravish Kumar of India, Raymundo Pujante Cayabyab of the Philippines and Kim Jong-ki of South Korea.
Mrs Angkhana founded the Justice for Peace Foundation in 2006. The network has played a key role in documenting the human rights situation in southern Thailand.
Its work has raised public awareness and putting pressure on the government to act on human rights cases, providing legal assistance to victims and training women on human rights and the peace process, according to the foundation.
She was named human rights commissioner in 2015 but resigned Wednesday, along with Tuenjai Deetes, another commissioner, after the National Human Rights Commission’s regulations were changed prohibiting commissioners from giving news to media when they are in the field.
They viewed the ban limited the effectiveness of their work because with no publicity, they no longer received tip-offs from the public, which in the past had helped them address the problems.
Mrs Angkhana’s husband, Somchai Neelapaijit, a Muslim lawyer and human rights activist, disappeared in 2004. He was last seen in Bangkok’s Ramkhamhaeng area where eyewitnesses saw four men dragging him from his car. He has not been seen since.
Five police officers were charged with coercion in the Somchai case. They were acquitted in 2015. A year later the DSI dropped the case, having shown no results after 12 years of investigation. The case of the possible death of Somchai has not since been solved. In 2016 the Department of Special Investigation declared the investigation "over".