PRESS RELEASE
ALRC-PL-02-2005

Report to U.N. Human Rights Committee on Thailand released

(Hong Kong, March 24, 2005) The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) on Thursday publicly released a report on Thailand for the U.N. Human Rights Committee.

The 104-page report, 'Institutionalised torture, extrajudicial killings & uneven application of law in Thailand', was submitted to the committee last Wednesday, March 16.

The committee is set to consider Thailand's compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in July 2005.

"The report examines in detail how rights under the covenant cannot at present be implemented in Thailand, and we expect that it will be given very serious consideration by the committee," Basil Fernando, executive director of the Hong Kong-based rights group said.

The ALRC recommended to the committee that Thailand enact laws to prohibit torture and forced disappearance.

"We have consistently pressed the government of Thailand to ratify the U.N. Convention against Torture and introduce it into domestic law in order to address widespread abuses by the police," Fernando said. 

To underscore its concerns, the ALRC cited credible allegations of police torture from Ayutthaya province, the capital city Bangkok, and the south of the country, and pointed to the disappearance human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), sister organisation of the ALRC, took the unusual step of bringing the case of Somchai to the attention of His Majesty the King of Thailand on March 11.

The ALRC also proposed to the committee that Thailand introduce a law to allow petitions on human rights violations to be submitted directly to the supreme court.

"At present there is no avenue for petitions to be made directly to the superior courts in Thailand," Fernando said.

"This is an innovative proposal that acknowledges the good effects had in jurisdictions where there exists such an avenue for complaints of human right violations," he said.

Other recommendations to the committee included that an agency be established to receive and investigate complaints of serious abuses committed by the police and that public prosecutors be given full investigatory power alongside the police.

The ALRC also urged that Thailand's institute of forensic science and victim compensation and witness protection schemes should be strengthened.

The report is available on-line, at: http://www.alrc.net/doc/mainfile.php/unar_hrc_th_2005.

It will be published with supplementary documents in the April 2005 edition of the ALRC's bimonthly publication, article 2.

A summary of the report's key recommendations follows. 

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS BY THE ASIAN LEGAL RESOURCE CENTRE TO THE U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE

" Ratify the U.N. Convention against Torture and introduce a domestic law to criminalise torture.

" Introduce a domestic law to criminalise forced disappearance.

" Make available the right to petition directly to the Supreme Court on human rights violations.

" Ratify the first optional protocol to the covenant to allow complaints of violations to be made to the committee.

" Create a specialised agency to receive and investigate complaints of serious rights violations against the police.

" Remove the exclusive power of the police over ordinary criminal investigations, and extend the role of the attorney general.

" Strengthen the roles of the Forensic Science Institute and National Human Rights Commission of Thailand.

" Enhance the victim compensation and witness protection schemes.

" Ensure that there are full and proper judicial inquiries into all cases of murder or extrajudicial killings.

" Review the current arrangements for statutory detention with a view to reducing the periods of detention and affording better oversight to judicial officers, registered doctors, and lawyers.

" Review the role of the court-appointed lawyers with a view to reforming and improving the system to ensure that defendants obtain satisfactory service.

" Review the functioning of the National Counter Corruption Commission with reference to the continued widely reported and deeply entrenched corruption among the police.

" Review the application of martial law provisions and other onerous restrictions on the people of the south of Thailand.

" Review practices in relation to stateless persons with a view to granting full citizenship rights to affected persons at the nearest possible date.

" Review practices in relation to migrant workers and ratify the U.N. Convention on Migrant Workers. 

" Abolish criminal defamation and review the existing civil defamation law to bring it into line with international standards.

" Review the present composition of the proposed members of the incipient broadcast media regulatory body and procedure for their appointment.

# # #

About ALRC The Asian Legal Resource Centre holds general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. The Hong Kong-based group seeks to strengthen and encourage positive action on legal and human rights issues at local and national levels throughout Asia.