Annual Report of the Sata Foundation for the Year 2021

(1) Aid for Afghanistan

After the collapse of the Afghan Government and the Taliban’s takeover of the country in August 2021, Afghanistan has had humanitarian crises that have generated widespread international concerns. Foreign aids provided by other governments and international organizations have been largely hindered due to sanctions imposed on the Taliban as well as logistic difficulties in their transportation to and distribution for those Afghans in dire need.
The Sata Foundation donated to Aryana Aid (www.aryanaaid.org.uk), a small charity based in the United Kingdom with personnel operating in Afghanistan, to fund the following three projects based on the needs of the community in Afghanistan and Afghan people's requests:

1. The Community-Well Project to provide clean water to an entire Afghan village;

2. The Water-Well Project to provide clean water around the clock to 900 people in the Bagrami district, in the eastern suburb of the capital city of Kabul; and

3. Food pack distribution for three needy Afghan families for one month while awaiting the arrival of international food aids.

(2) Human Rights at Sea (https://www.humanrightsatsea.org/)

In December 2020, the Sata Foundation donated to Human Rights at Sea, a charity engaged in protecting persons at risk at sea, including refugees escaping from war-torn countries in Africa who find themselves in serious danger on unsafe boats in the Mediterranean Sea.
This donation was spent in 2021 by Human Rights at Sea to assist the work of SOS Mediterranée, a European maritime humanitarian organization for the rescue of life in the Mediterranean (https://www.sosmediterranee.org/).

(3) Other possible donations

The Sata Foundation continued to explore possibilities of making other donations. However, the global COVID-19 pandemic caused difficulties in communications. In other cases, requests were made for contributions by already well-funded charities.

Run for Peace Rally 2021

Since 2005, the Sata Foundation has sponsored the “Run for Peace” Cycling Rally in France to commemorate the anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively) and to promote public awareness of the human sufferings caused by the use of nuclear weapons as well as the need to ensure that scientific knowledge is used for human health and well-being, and not as weapons of destruction.
On Saturday 31 July 2021, the Run for Peace Rally was held in Chailly-sur-Armançon, France, with approximately 300 cyclists taking part and which raised fund for the Sata Foundation.

The Executive Director of the Sata Foundation published a 314-page book, entitled The Rohingya, Justice and International Law (Routledge, 1 November 2021).



This incisive and highly readable book is about international law as well as realpolitik in bilateral and multilateral diplomacy in the quest for justice by victims of serious human rights violations amounting to grave crimes of international concern. Focusing on the plight of the ethnic and religious group of persons called the “Rohingya”, normally residing in Myanmar, as the case study, the book elaborates the complex legal technicalities and impediments in international courts and foreign domestic criminal courts in relation to acts amounting to genocide, crimes against humanity and/or war crimes.
On 31 May 2021, the Oxford Transitional Justice Research Group, the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at Oxford University, and the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict jointly organized an online discussion of this book, with Ambassador Stephen Rapp, former US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues & former Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and Dr Priya Pillai of the Asia Justice Coalition, as the discussants. Approximately 300 persons registered to attend the live online discussion and its recording (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX-WqXyUafI) has been viewed by more than 700 people as of today.

Professor Kriangsak Kittichaisaree,
Executive Director,
Sata Foundation, 30 July 2022