August 26, 2024
Re: Human Rights Agenda for New Government
Dear Prime Minister,
First of all, congratulations on your appointment as the new Prime Minister of Thailand.
Human Rights Watch is an international nongovernmental organization that monitors and reports on human rights issues in more than 100 countries around the world. We have reported on Thailand for over three decades.
In this regard, we urge you to immediately address the following major issues and take concrete steps to reaffirm your pledges to uphold human rights and democratic principles made during the Pheu Thai Party’s election campaign.
Ending Torture and Enforced Disappearances
Thailand is a state party to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. On August 24, 2022, the House of Representatives approved and passed the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Bill. The law became effective on February 22, 2023.
Human Rights Watch has documented numerous cases related to counterinsurgency operations in Thailand’s southern border provinces in which police and military personnel tortured ethnic Malay Muslims in custody. There are also credible reports of torture being used as a form of punishment for Thai military conscripts. During the five years of military rule after the 2014 coup, many people taken into incommunicado military custody alleged that soldiers tortured or otherwise ill-treated them during their detention and interrogation.
Since 1980, the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has recorded 76 cases of enforced disappearance in Thailand. During the government of Prime Minister Gen. Prayut Chan-ocha, at least nine Thai dissidents who fled persecution in Thailand were forcibly disappeared in neighboring countries. In September 2021, the Working Group raised concerns about enforced disappearances in the context of transnational transfers of dissidents between Thailand and neighboring countries. None of these cases have either been resolved or seriously investigated by Thai authorities, even after the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand publicly urged Thai authorities to take action in June 2024. Human Rights Watch released a report on the disappearance and forced return of foreign political dissidents, “We Thought We Were Safe,” in May 2024.
Your government should effectively enforce the law and resolve outstanding cases.
Respect for Freedom of Expression and Assembly
While noting your stated commitment to “make every inch of Thailand to become an area of opportunity for Thai people to dream, to be creative, and to define their own future," there has been an ongoing constriction of critical and dissident opinions. At least 1,954 people have been prosecuted since the beginning of pro-democracy protests in July 2020 for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful public assembly.
The continued use of Penal Code section 112 on lese majeste (insulting the monarchy), which carries punishment of up to 15 years in prison for each offense, shows how Thai authorities have imposed excessive restrictions on the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression. At least 272 people have currently been prosecuted on royal insult charges. Thai authorities have often held critics of the monarchy in pre-trial detention for months without access to bail. On May 14, 2024, anti-monarchy activist Netiporn Sanesangkhom died during pretrial detention. Your government should reform the lese majeste law, adopt a moratorium on the prosecution and pretrial detention of dissidents, and implement the proposal for a comprehensive amnesty—including for critics of the monarchy.
In addition, your government should recognize that the sedition and the computer-related crime laws have been abused, and immediately seek to reform those laws in compliance with international human right standards. Your government should also immediately dismiss all pending Covid-19 restriction-related charges. The nationwide enforcement of emergency measures to control the spread of Covid-19 was lifted in October 2022, but at least 1,469 people are still being prosecuted under the charges related to those measures.
Protection of Human Rights Defenders
Your government should ensure that human rights defenders can carry out their work in a safe and enabling environment, in line with the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.
The killing and enforced disappearance of human rights defenders and other civil society activists is a serious blot on Thailand’s human rights record. Since 2001, assailants have killed more than 20 human rights defenders and civil society activists. Even in serious criminal cases involving the public interest that are referred to the Justice Ministry’s Department of Special Investigation (DSI), those responsible have not been punished. Cover-up actions, manifested in the form of poor police work and lack of willingness to pursue evidence in the case, effectively blocked efforts to prosecute soldiers who shot dead ethnic Lahu activist Chaiyaphum Pasae in March 2017 in Chiang Mai province; a forestry official accused of abducting and murdering ethnic Karen activist Porlajee Rakchongchareon in April 2014 in Phetchaburi province; and police officers allegedly responsible for the enforced disappearance of Muslim lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit in March 2004 in Bangkok. The police have made no progress in investigating violent attacks in 2019 targeting prominent democracy activists Sirawith Seritiwat, Anurak Jeantawanich, and Ekachai Hongkangwan.
Despite the adoption of the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights in 2019, Thai authorities have failed to protect rights defenders from reprisals and end the abusive use of strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP). For example, Thammakaset poultry company has filed 39 SLAPP lawsuits against human rights activists, migrant workers, and even a former national human rights commissioner. Your government should immediately curb the abusive use of the judicial system to harass and punish critics and whistleblowers.
Protection for Refugees and Asylum Seekers
Thailand has a long and globally recognized reputation for being a refuge for people fleeing war and persecution.
Unfortunately, Thai authorities in recent years have violated the international prohibition against refoulement by returning refugees and asylum seekers to countries where they are likely to face persecution. Thai authorities have forcibly returned asylum seekers and refugees from Bahrain, Cambodia, China, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Turkey, Vietnam, and other countries.
Thailand has sheltered refugees fleeing from conflict in Myanmar since the mid-1980s on an ad hoc humanitarian basis. Approximately 90,000 people remain in nine refugee camps along the Myanmar border. Your government should allow people fleeing escalating fighting in Myanmar to shelter temporarily in border areas, and not push them into harm’s way.
The law and regulations establishing Thailand’s National Screening Mechanism (NSM) for asylum seekers have been officially promulgated. Thai authorities should stop refusing to consider Lao, Hmong, Uyghurs, ethnic Rohingya, and North Koreans for refugee status determination because such policy contravenes principles of non-discrimination in international human rights law. Ultimately, your government should ratify the 1951 Refugee Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.
Accountability for State-Sponsored Abuses
The 2007 Independent Committee for the Investigation, Study and Analysis of the Formulation and Implementation of Narcotic Suppression Policy (ICID) found that the policy formulation and assessment of the 2003 “war on drugs” was driven by an all-out effort to achieve the campaign's political goals, and disregarded respect for human rights and due process of law. Your government should implement the ICID’s recommendation that there should be a further inquiry into the killing of 2,819 people during the 2003 “war on drugs” to bring the perpetrators to account, as well as to end the cycle of abuse and impunity in drug suppression operations. Your government should also institute a policy to provide prompt, fair, and adequate compensation for the victims and family members of victims of human rights violations committed in the context of drug suppression operations.
Despite overwhelming evidence that soldiers were responsible for most casualties during the 2010 political confrontations with the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), known as the “Red Shirts,” which left at least 99 dead and more than 2,000 injured, no military personnel or government officials from the administration of then-Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva have been charged. Renewed efforts to ensure government security forces are held accountable for these rights abuses should be urgently undertaken.
The armed conflict in Thailand’s Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, and Songkhla provinces has resulted in more than 7,000 deaths by ethnic insurgents and government forces since January 2004. Successive governments had failed to prosecute members of security forces responsible for torture, unlawful killings, and other abuses of ethnic Malay Muslims. In many cases, Thai authorities provided financial compensation to victims or their families in exchange for their agreement not to speak out against the security forces, and not file criminal cases against officials. Your government should investigate and hold criminally accountable those responsible for human rights abuses in the deep south in addition to simply providing financial compensation. On August 23, 2024, the Narathiwat provincial court accepted the criminal case against officials in charge of the crackdown on ethnic Malay Muslim protesters in the Tak Bai district of Narathiwat province two decades ago. Under Thai law, the 20-year statute of limitations will end in October 2024, preventing legal action after that time.
We trust that you will make aforementioned human rights issues a major priority in the first months of your administration. Human Rights Watch would welcome discussing these concerns with you directly and offer specific recommendations.
We thank you for your consideration of these important matters and look forward to your response.
Yours sincerely,
Elaine Pearson
Asia Director
Human Rights Watch
