i. Torture is routinely practiced and publicly accepted in Thailand. It is used by all security agencies, most commonly, the Royal Thai Police. In the minds of the ordinary people, the police are associated with routine physical abuse and humiliation of persons in their custody. Unusually cruel forms of torture are also inflicted both on persons taken into custody over alleged ‘terrorist’ activities as well as ordinary criminal cases. The perpetrators rarely face criminal prosecution of any kind. No domestic law exists to effectively address the use of torture, and Thailand has not ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Nor does any specialised independent agency exist to investigate complaints of torture or other grave human rights violations by the police or other state agents. No official attempts are made to counter public assertions, even when coming from senior officials, that torture is acceptable. Limited arrangements exist to compensate victims and protect witnesses. However, in most cases of torture it is extremely difficult to take steps to protect the victims and prosecute the perpetrators as the former are usually held in the custody of the latter for extended periods. Under these circumstances, it is not possible to secure evidence of torture and keep the victims free from coercion and threats by the perpetrators.

ii. Torture and other custodial abuses are freely committed by state agencies in part because of the very extensive powers that they enjoy. Despite the establishment of new agencies under the 1997 Constitution intended to correct this imbalance, as well as some other minor reforms, the Royal Thai Police are free to operate with relatively little external scrutiny and few avenues for effective complaints by the public. In most criminal cases the police have complete control over the enquiries. During their investigations, the police are able to detain criminal suspects for a period of up to 84 days without laying charges. Many persons are detained for longer periods than are legally permitted, or are rearrested on new charges immediately after being released at the end of the statutory period. While holding a detainee, the police have at their disposal numerous tried-and-tested means to extract confessions and then conceal the evidence of abuse. In practice, the provisions allowing access to lawyers and doctors during this period, to which the State party has adverted in its report (para. 191), do little to prevent these practices. Even in cases where a high level of publicity has been raised around alleged torture, and unequivocal evidence of it exists, there is a heavy reluctance on the part of the authorities—despite rhetorical commitments to the contrary—to do anything to combat it. While these conditions apply under normal circumstances, in parts of the country subject to martial law provisions the security forces are granted considerably wider powers to detain and limit the rights of suspects without outside scrutiny.

iii. The widespread use of torture is intimately connected to other serious violations of human rights in Thailand, notably extrajudicial and targeted killings. The number of extrajudicial and targeted killings in the country has risen alarmingly in recent years. These include the widespread killings of alleged drug traffickers, targeted killings and forced disappearances of human rights defenders and environmental activists, and mass killings and deaths in custody in the troubled south of the country. The perpetrators of these acts are rarely subjected to criminal prosecution. State agents enjoy considerable impunity when responsible for the deaths of others. Although the State party asserts that state agents are subjected to the same laws and procedures when responsible for the death of another person (para. 147), this is not in practice the case.

iv. Institutions that exist to protect the rights of citizens are not having this effect. Within the courts, public defenders are not doing their jobs. Ordinary people in Thailand anticipate that if they are assigned a public defender then they will be found guilty. The services provided by the Law Society of Thailand are in many instances little better. Its lawyers may decline to assist in a case where a public defender has already been appointed for reasons of etiquette, even when the public defender is doing nothing. As a result, victims and their families have lost confidence in these agencies. Outside the courts, pending legal proceedings are used as an excuse for inaction. The Department of Special Investigation under the Ministry of Justice, Crime Suppression Division of the Royal Thai Police, and the Ombudsmen have, for instance, all declined to investigate cases on the ground that the matter is pending in the courts. This is even the case when the complaint lodged does not relate directly to the hearings in court. The government of Thailand has not ratified the first Optional Protocol to the Covenant, thereby denying the possibility for a dissatisfied complainant to bring a case before the Committee.

v. Many of the provisions and institutions established under the democratic 1997 Constitution of Thailand are under serious threat. The State party has in its report rightly spoken of the importance of this Constitution (para. 22); however, in reality a significant danger is now being posed to the democratic structure of Thailand and its new independent agencies. Both the Forensic Science Institute and National Human Rights Commission have been the targets of uncompromising attacks by senior persons in government and the police, seeking to limit their efficacy. The links between the government and big business have undermined strong public attempts to establish genuinely independent regulators of broadcast media frequencies. The continued use of onerous and outdated criminal defamation laws prevents open debate on issues that are in the public interest, in contravention of the Constitution.

vi. The dramatically worsening conditions in the south of Thailand are a matter of particularly grave concern and deserve special attention. The resumption of counter-insurgency measures, including the recent proposal to zone the three southern provinces and deny ‘red zones’ government funds, is an extremely disturbing development. Apart from the daily reports of violence in the south, the scale of human rights abuses by all parties there is unknown. Anecdotal reports suggest that disappearances, torture and extrajudicial killings are widespread; however, the lack of any effective independent oversight makes the extent of these incidents difficult to establish. Notwithstanding, the fact that the perpetrators of the widely reported deaths in custody of at least 78 persons in October 2004 have not faced criminal sanction for their actions speaks to the absolute impunity with which state security forces are being permitted to operate in the south.