A people's bill for the elimination of discrimination, supported by 12,116 signatures, has been submitted for parliament's deliberation, Move Forward party-list MP Thanyawat Kamolwongwat said on Wednesday.
Mr Thanyawat, part of a working group of the House of Representatives for legislation on the elimination of discrimination, on Wednesday was among representatves who submitted the "people's bill" to Parliamant President Chuan Leekpai.
They want it placed on the House agenda and deliberated in a parliamentary process.
He said the Move Forward Party is pushing for passage of the bill for the equal treatment of all people and respect for human dignity.
"I believe the bill, if passed into law, would solve problems which have long been accumulating and enable society to operate on the principles of equity and justice," Mr Thanyawat said.
"We have to admit that in Thai society there are still people being discriminated against because of their place of birth, gender or physical appearance," he said.
Mr Thanyawat said discrimination was caused by ingrained attitudes or behaviour firmly established in the education system and therefore difficult to change. This leads to people being subject to discrimination in work, education and access to services.
People were affected by discrimination in economic, social, cultural and many other ways.
For example, the case of people from the Northeast being insulted on social media. This was caused by ingrained attitudes towards northeastern people.
As an MP, Mr Thanyawat said, he felt the bill submitted to parliament could lead to the problem of discrimination being solved systematically.
However, he expected that this people's bill would be deemed a financial bill and be thrown out by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.
Therefore, the Move Forward Party had also drafted its own bill on the elimination of discrimination for submission to parliament, Mr Thanyawat said.