Mr. Monthian Buntan has served as a Senator of the Upper House of the Royal Thai Parliament since 2008. He is also an elected member of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
After his tenure as a university lecturer for eight years, Senator Monthian left his teaching career to become a full time social activist in 2002. He has held a number of positions within the organized blind movement in Thailand, currently serving in the senior advisory council of Thailand Association of the Blind. He also served in the youth committee of the World Blind Union (WBU) from 1996 until 2000, when he was elected to serve as a member in the WBU executive committee.
Mr. Buntan contributed to the development of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which is the first thematic international human rights law for persons with disabilities and the first international human rights treaty of the twenty-first century. He was also part of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), which mainstreamed disability and produced the first disability-inclusive policy documents at the international level.
Mr. Buntan strives to make information and communication technologies accessible to all, including people who are blind.