Rapatsa Trirath, the Regional Coordinator at Oxfam in Asia based in Bangkok, Thailand, leads influential work focused on seafood supply chains in Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. With nearly a decade of experience, she has cultivated strong partnerships with frontline civil society organizations in Asia, advocating for worker rights and marine sustainability. Her expertise lies in the intersection of business and human rights, alongside supply chain management. This expertise has significantly contributed to shaping policy dialogues with the private sector, fostering constructive engagement aimed at addressing critical issues.
Rapatsa is leading key projects at Oxfam in Asia, facilitating constructive collaboration between businesses and civil society. This initiative aims to ensure that businesses thrive while concurrently safeguarding human rights and the environment.
In 2020, Rapatsa co-authored a paper on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on small-scale producers and workers: perspectives from Thailand's seafood supply chain. This publication sheds light on the challenges faced by small-scale producers and workers within Thailand's seafood supply chain amidst the global pandemic. Additionally, she led the management of key annual worker surveys in Thailand's seafood supply chains in collaboration with the CSO Coalition for Ethical and Sustainable seafood, spanning from 2018 to 2021. These surveys effectively highlighted key human rights issues affecting workers and provided clear recommendations to stakeholders.
Moreover, in 2023, she managed the policy paper on Human Rights Due Diligence in the seafood and palm oil sectors in Asia. This paper delves into the concept of human rights due diligence (HRDD), providing an overview of the extent to which companies in Asia have incorporated HRDD into their operations. The paper outlines the drivers for HRDD adoption by companies in Asia, the opportunities and risks, the business cases for incorporating HRDD, and sets out how companies can engage with stakeholders and their representatives to conduct meaningful HRDD, in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs).
