For Those Who Died Trying (And Those Who Endure) แด่นักสู้ผู้จากไป (และผู้ที่ยังต่อสู้ปกป้องสิทธิมนุษยชนอยู่ต่อไป)

For Those Who Died Trying (And Those Who Endure)
Exhibition by Luke Duggleby

For centuries, Thailand has seen a systematic backlash against those who have struggled for a more equal society. Sadly, those who fought for such change were frequently met with violence, often ending with imprisonment, injury or even death. Whether exposing corruption, calling for fairer rights to land, protecting the environment from illegal deforestation and land grabs, to opposing the construction of poorly-conceived development projects, the repercussions have been extreme.

For Those Who Died Trying by British photographer Luke Duggleby looks to preserve the memory of those who lost their lives fighting for what was right. Tracing history back as far as 1973, he went in search of the families and friends of those who were killed across Thailand, requesting a portrait of that person and taking it to the exact location of the crime itself to take his photographs. In total, he has preserved the memory of 56 human rights defenders exhibited here as individual photographs.

The first substantial documentation of the use of violence towards rural community leaders comes between 1973 and 1976 when almost 50 leaders of the Farmers’ Federation of Thailand were documented as being killed or injured. More recently, research by Human Rights NGO Protection International has documented over 70 cases of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances in Thailand of Women/Human Rights Defenders in the past 30 years.It is vital, for the victims and their families, that their fight and their death should not be forgotten and left un-recognised. And that those who abuse their power with impunity must not go unpunished, as ultimately receiving justice is the beginning of ending these killings.

Yet, we must also remember that many continue to fight for their rights and this body of work also represents their contribution in the community struggle. In particular, the involvement of women human rights defenders who play a vital and instrumental part and who are often under-represented are shown in large individual portraits, alongside in-depth documentaries of specific communities from around the country.We must know what they died fighting for and we must never forget them.