Human rights in Thailand

[1][2] From 1977 to 1988, Amnesty International (AI) reported that there were whitewashed cases of more than one thousand alleged arbitrary detentions, fifty forced disappearances, and at least one hundred instances of torture and extrajudicial killings.

[7][8][9] The revolution of 1932 that ended an absolute monarchy increased people rights, influenced by a social democrat, Pridi Banomyong, introduced a democracy and the first constitution of Thailand.

The current (2016) constitution, drafted by a body appointed by the military junta (NCPO), states in section 4: "The human dignity, rights, liberty and equality of the people shall be protected".

Deputy-Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan announced that the 8,200 security cameras operating in the southern Thailand could be fitted with a facial recognition system and could be run with artificial intelligence (AI) in the future.

The Internal Security Operations Command also involved in deep monitoring of opposition politicians, seen as Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's political enemies, and Thai activists.

[37] In June 2022, craft brewery and microbrewery have been unofficially discriminalized because the bill of Move Forward Party MP, Taopiphop Limjittrakorn, passed the lower house.

[40] The Southeast Asian Press Alliance noted that freedom of speech in Thailand's domestic media environment—prior to the 2006 coup considered one of the freest and most vibrant in Asia—had quickly deteriorated following the military ousting of Thaksin Shinawatra.

[46] In October 2020, Thailand's Ministry of Digital Economy and Society announced an emergency decree to censor blunt Voice TV on all online media channels.

[48] Same Sky Books owner and chief editor, Thanapol Eawsakul was arrested by Technology Crime Suppression Division police on 29 June 2022 for keeping a top secret document.

Thanapol had been harassed by Royal Thai Police officers several times since he founded a company which printed critical political books related to the Monarchy of Thailand.

[54] In November 2021, Yan Marchal, an 18-years French expatriate in Thailand, was deported to his homeland after he had been mocking the Prayut Chan-o-cha's Thai junta and so on the military dominated government in TikTok.

[55] On 1 December 2021, the 28-year-old noodle vendor made a headline news, asked Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to retire quickly to allow others to perform the duties and voiced that Thailand needs a lot of development, while he was welcomed by people in Ban Dung District in Udon Thani.

A report compiled in 2018 by the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights Centre showed that at least 86 political refugees left the country after the 2014 coup d'état for coup-related reasons.

[66] Human rights advocates across Asia fear that Southeast Asian countries, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Laos, have jointly agreed to cooperate to ensnare political activists who have fled their own borders and send them back to their home nations without due process to face torture and possible death.

[67] The Bangkok Post has noted that disappearances began to happen after the Thai and Lao governments agreed in December 2017 to cooperate in tracking down persons deemed "security threats".

The band, whose name means 'cool fire', announced on social media that its members feared for their lives after "many trusted people told us that the Thai military will come to kill us.

Some were imprisoned accumulatively for more than 200 days after Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha issued a declaration in November 2020 to charge protesters with offenses under all laws, including lèse-majesté.

The police searched his house and took his computer and smartphone, and made his mother sign a consent of bringing him to be admitted to Rajanagarindra Psychiatric Hospital in Khon Kaen.

[99] Since the 2014 Thai coup d'état, the National Council for Peace and Order had made full use of martial law to prosecute opponents, ban political activity, and censor the media.

[101] On 6 December 2021, the Royal Thai Police arrested more than fifty local villagers from Chana District that came to sit in near the government house, protesting against plans for industrial park in "Southern Economic Corridor".

[103] The Muslim community in the Deep south Thailand continued to express frustration with perceived discriminatory treatment by security forces and what they said was a judicial system that lacked adequate checks and balances.

In a particularly high-profile case, Muslim human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit was reportedly harassed, threatened, and finally forcibly disappeared in March 2004 following his allegations of torture by state security forces.

[107] The verdict was denounced by the Asian Human Rights Commission,[108] and Somchai's wife Angkhana declared her intention to continue to appeal the case to the Thai Supreme Court.

Later, the Human Rights Protection Committee, appointed by the Fourth Army Area Commander, concluded that soldiers mistook the dead men for terrorists and killed them as they were running away.

[119] On February 19, the deputy national police chief, Gen. Sriwara Rangsipramanakul, publicly intimidated Chuchart Kanpai to prosecute him with an insult and making false statements stating Bilal Mohammad (Adem Karadag), his client, was tortured into confessing to the 2015 Bangkok bombing at Erawan Shrine.

[127][128] In a report entitled, "Make Him Speak by Tomorrow": Torture and other Ill-Treatment in Thailand[129] that was to have been formally released in Bangkok on 28 September 2016, Amnesty International accused the Thai police and military of 74 incidents of brutality.

[64] On 5 August 2021, the Thai police assaulted Jeerapong Thanapat, a 24-year-old drug suspect, during an interrogation to force him to reveal hidden methamphetamines and to pay a two million baht or US$60,000 bribe for his release.

[142] Numerous international news organizations including The Guardian, AP, and The New York Times have extensively covered the topic; The Associated Press, in particular, has won prominent awards for their coverage (although not without controversy for overstating their role in combating trafficking).

[145] Conscription was introduced in Thailand in 1905, according to the Constitution of the Kingdom, serving in the armed forces is a national duty of all Thai male citizens, but it has disregarded human rights in the military institution, each year reports of abuse, torture, and killing against draftees are common.

[156] Prayut had assigned the Ministry of Interior and the Royal Thai Police to look into the matter, meanwhile the yellow-shirts, pro-government groups rallied in front of the Silom Complex in Bangkok to gather up to one million signatures in support of a campaign to expel AITH from Thailand.