Back in 2007, the government agreed to be a party to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, otherwise known as the "CAT".
Recently, Thailand's record on this front was vetted for the second time by the CAT Committee -- which monitors the implementation of the convention -- and a package of anti-torture recommendations landed on Thailand's doorstep at the beginning of December 2024.
In its report, the CAT committee welcomed a number of positive developments from the country, in particular the passage of the law against torture and enforced disappearances in 2022.
However, there is still a lot of work to be done, and the report included a number of recommendations, including calls to improve procedures to enforce the anti-torture law, resolve several high-profile cases, strengthen monitoring mechanism and extend compensation to victims and their relatives.
The committee found the definitions of torture and enforced disappearances in the new law are not broad enough.
Under the CAT, torture is defined as the infliction of serious physical and mental harm on a person by government authorities and their agents, with one of the following four goals: to extract a confession, to punish, to intimidate and or to discriminate against a person.
The CAT committee said the Thai definition is based on actual knowledge on the part of the authorities; while the preferred definition, it said, should also cover situations where authorities aren't aware of the malpractice.
The same applies to the definition of enforced disappearances -- in its report, the committee said the definition under the law is too narrow, as it only covers instances where the government is aware that their officials are deliberately depriving a person of his or her liberty.
Another key area of concern pertains to procedures. When a person is arrested under the two key emergency laws in Thailand, namely the Martial Law Act (1914) and the Emergency Decree (2005), they can be detained for up to 37 days without charges and/or a trial. The committee urged the government to bring arrested individuals to court within 48 hours.
More importantly, under the law, there is a statute of limitation for reporting torture, enforced disappearances and related crimes, which ranges between 10 and 20 years. In the report, the committee urged the government to scrap such limitations for such crimes.
The committee also criticised a number of Thai laws as being inherently unjust. The emergency decree, in particular, was singled out for limiting access to legal representation and visits from relatives. The committee also took note of Section 12 of the decree, which allows authorities to detain those accused of violating the decree in unofficial detention facilities, beyond the reach of monitoring mechanisms designed to prevent abuses.
The committee, as such, was directly referring to various "closed" facilities in southern Thailand, which have held individuals accused of undermining the state incommunicado.
It also raised the issue of impunity sanctioned by emergency laws. Under the emergency decree, for example, accused individuals are barred from asking the courts for a redress.
The committee went further by singling out the need to reform Section 226/1 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which allows the courts to use forced confessions as evidence. In the eyes of the CAT, such confessions are illegal.
The report also called for a moratorium on death penalty, pointing out the need to push for a law against corporal punishment, as well as to improve the law against domestic violence. It urged the country's National Human Rights Commission to be more pro-active in monitoring prisons and ensuring impartial and effective investigations of abuses.
The committee then raised the need to amend the law on compensation for victims of injustices to ensure that it covers cases of torture and enforced disappearances.
This committee is somewhat different from other committees established under UN Human Rights Conventions, since it is explicit about various cases needing attention.
It lists prominently cases which needs attention, for example the Tak Bai case, where almost 80 people died at the hands of uniformed officials, mainly resulting from suffocation through being crammed in military vehicles.
To date, no one has been found guilty of these crimes. The time limit for prosecuting the culprits under the law recently expired, and the committee's advice to discard the statute of limitations for cases of torture and enforced disappearances is clearly targeting the aberrations surrounding this case.
Another area of concern is "transnational repression" whereby a state, usually in conjunction with a neighbouring state, intimidates its citizen which have sought refuge or are residing in another country. The case of a Vietnamese Montagnard who sought refuge in Thailand a while ago was raised explicitly by the committee.
The report said the man is considered a "person of concern" by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the equivalent of a refugee, and should not be sent back, where there may be a danger to his safety. Regrettably, not only has he been arrested, but he is also facing extradition his country of origin.
Section 13 of the new anti-torture law prohibits the refoulement of individuals in such position. Yet, it seems that this provision has been ignored for political purposes, shaped by various vested interests.
On a related front, a number of Cambodian refugees were sent back recently, in breach of Thailand's anti-torture law and the CAT. They are now in prison in Cambodia.
Given that Thailand will be a member of the UN Human Rights Council in 2025, it should act in an exemplary manner and refrain from any form of human rights transgressions.
Policy makers at the apex of the system, please take note and rectify the situation immediately.
Vitit Muntarbhorn is a Professor Emeritus at the Faculty of Law, Chulalongkorn University. He has helped the UN as a UN Special Rapporteur, Independent Expert and member of UN Commissions of Inquiry on Human Rights.