Parents receive Korea award for 'Pai Dao Din'

Parents receive Korea award for 'Pai Dao Din'

Viboon (centre) and Prim Boonpattararaksa (right) speak at a press conference during the ceremony to receive the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights award to their son Jatupat. Another recepient is Serge Bambara (left) from Burkina Faso. (Pulse photo)
Viboon (centre) and Prim Boonpattararaksa (right) speak at a press conference during the ceremony to receive the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights award to their son Jatupat. Another recepient is Serge Bambara (left) from Burkina Faso. (Pulse photo)

South Korea’s May 18 Memorial Foundation on Thursday presented the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights to student activist Jatupat Boonpattararaksa to his parents.

The human rights award for Jatupat, known as Pai Dao Din, was received by his parents on behalf of the jailed student activist, Pulse reported on Thursday.

“My son has become an activist upon being inspired by Korea’s May 18 pro-democratic movement,” said his father Viboon. “Human rights and freedom of expression should be guaranteed for everyone.” 

Mr Jatupat, this year’s recipient of the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights, was a young law student when arrested last yer for offending the monarch and breaking cybercrime law. As a student of Khon Kaen University, he fought for democracy as a student activist leader against the military regime since 2015. 

"Jatupat’s actions have inspired all human rights activists and those who long for democracy beyond Thailand,” said the judging committee for the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights. 

The Gwangju Prize for Human Rights is an award recognising individuals or organisations that have made contributions to building human rights and bringing peace to the society. The award is given by the May 18 Memorial Foundation that was set up in 1994 to commemorate the democratic upheaval on May 18, 1980 that took away the life of hundreds of citizens in Gwangju, south of Korea. 

The foundation also presented a special human rights award to Serge Bambara, a singer from western African country Burkina Faso for his works to reform the societies across Africa through his music. The African singer has been leading a social movement through an organisation named Citizen's Broom that he formed with other musical artists, and spreading the history of his country through the three singing albums titled Premonition, Revolution, and Evolution.

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