Article 112


Thailand  / United Nations
Thailand’s Bid for a Seat on the UN Human Rights Council is Poorly Timed
Posted On April 3, 2024
Thailand is currently bidding for the third time for a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), with the election for a three-year term for 2025-2027 being held at the U.N. headquarters in New York in October. Like many countries with poor records on human rights, Thailand’s bid will come with a high level of scrutiny and international criticism. In 2023, Freedom House, a democracy barometer, noted that only 30 percent of the countries serving on the Council were “free,” as classified by its Freedom in the World annual report. The vast majority of members, 70 percent, were classified as “partly free” or “not free.” Thailand, with a revised ranking, would join the latter category if elected in October.
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Thailand
Thai Constitutional Court Decision on Move Forward is Judicial Overreach
February 9, 2024

Thailand’s nascent semi-democracy suffered a tremendous blow last week (31 January), when the Constitutional Court ruled that the Move Forward Party’s (MFP) campaign to reform Article 112 of the 2017 Constitution was tantamount to treason. The Court has ruled several times, delivering punishing blows to opposition parties, such as the dissolution of the Future Forward Party, But the recent Court decision is among the most consequential and far reaching and pushes the upper limits of judicial overreach. First, a high court exists to serve within the boundaries of the law and produce legal decisions that are in keeping with established jurisprudence and established principles of law.


Southeast Asia  / Thailand
Pita Touches the “Third Rail” of Thai Politics
July 21, 2023

If you touch it, you die. That’s the supposed result for politicians who confront highly contentious issues. Likened to grasping the “third rail,” the one that provides the electricity that powers a train or subway, the result is political suicide—at least that was the metaphor attributed to U.S. House Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill when discussing the topic of Social Security in the early 1980s, as any politician attempting to reform the largest social safety net for retired American workers would later cost them their political careers at the ballot box. Pita Limjaroenrat, the prime ministerial candidate of the progressive Move Forward Party, which upset Thailand’s conservative military-backed parties in the May 14 election, also touched on a sensitive national issue: lèse-majesté.


Southeast Asia  / Thailand
As lèse majesté cases soar, what does this tell us about the Thai state?
January 29, 2021

The number of recent lèse majesté cases in Thailand have soared to near 60, as prominent former Future Forward Party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit and a retired former civil servant made headlines over the past week. Thanathorn’s lèse majesté case came after the 42-year-old auto parts billionaire ran a live broadcast that questioned the capacity of the King Maha Vajiralongkorn-owned Siam BioScience in producing coronavirus vaccines in Thailand.


Southeast Asia  / Thailand
Thai police have, in the past decade, evolved to be zealous enforcers of Thai conservatism
January 19, 2021

In the middle of the night, the Royal Thai Police came for Sirichai “New” Nathuang, a student at Thammasat University’s Rangsit Campus. Accused of lèse majesté or defaming the Thai monarchy for spray painting political messages on the portraits of three members of the Royal Family, he was then charged with a cybercrime charge later for refusing to surrender his computer password to authorities.


Southeast Asia  / Thailand
Recent lèse majesté charges are now beyond the point of absurdity
December 16, 2020

Recently, a 16-year-old male teenager was accused of committing lèse majesté. The teenager was summoned by the Yannawa Police Station in Bangkok after the administrator of a popular Facebook page had filed a complaint with police against him.


Southeast Asia  / Thailand
The return of Article 112 means an increase in royalist witchhunts
November 25, 2020

The Royal Thai Police have summoned the leaders of the anti-government protesters to face charges of lèse majesté, stemming from comments made that called for institutional reforms to Thailand’s monarchy. Three of the leaders include student leaders Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak and Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul, as well as human rights lawyer Arnon Nampa, who began discussing monarchical reforms as early as August. The summons comes after a planned protest outside the Crown Property Bureau.