The United Nations signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and now marks the event annually on 10 December with the commemoration of Human Rights Day. As this day passes year after year, however, the environment for human rights in Thailand continues to degrade. A torrent of recent news underscores how alarming conditions in the country have become.
Each member state of the United Nations takes part in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process every five years. The aims are simple enough: evaluate and improve the human rights situations in all 193 UN countries and assist the fulfilment of each state’s human rights obligations through an objective, transparent, constructive process.
After almost two years of interrupted education in Thailand due to the drawn out effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, children are feeling drained, exhausted, and depressed. The United Nations warned recently that a return to school cannot be delayed, citing additional risks from exposure to violence and abuse, mental distress, missed meals, and routine vaccinations. The plight of Thailand’s exhausted youth also caught the attention of the much-maligned National Human Rights Commission (NHRCT), who noted that nearly a third of Thai students were at risk of depression.
When it was released in mid-September, the South Korean survival drama Squid Game captivated the world’s attention. Within four weeks, more than 140 million Netflix subscribers binge-watched the television programme, making it the streaming giant’s most-watched series ever. Central to the drama is the competition between 456 players, each facing lives of deep desperation, drowning in debt.
NACC) must reveal the findings from its 2018 investigation into the wristwatch scandal of Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan. The court ordered the NACC to disclose the findings of the now-infamous case, in which Prawit was controversially exonerated, stating the person who initiated the proceedings has the right to access information of state institutions and the NACC is bound to disclose the information under Sections 41 and 59 of the 2017 Constitution.
In late August, Thailand’s House of Representatives passed the draft budget for the next fiscal year, which begins in October. The 3.1 trillion baht budget is soon expected to be up for casual debate in the junta-appointed Senate. There were a number of important outcomes from the budget process, including spirited debate over potential budget cuts to Thailand’s monarchy. Up until recently, challenges to the government’s allocation to the monarchy would have been unspeakable, however in the current political environment, the proposed 8.76 billion in funding was debated.
At a protest earlier this month, a large banner was unfurled on the side of an overpass that read, “1.8 million children are about to fall out of the school system due to online instruction that doesn’t give a shit about them.” A young girl also hung herself over the side, a mock public suicide. The protest by the pro-democracy youth group Bad Student was a part of a six-day “online school strike.”
Along a road in Surin Province, a billboard reads, “Protect yourself from COVID, get a jab.” Medical personnel are featured prominently on the sign, an encouragement to locals to get vaccinated from the coronavirus. Recently, the number of COVID-19 cases in Surin province increased to more than 100 per day, which in the northeast of Thailand is second only to Nakhon Ratchasima. The pandemic has hit Surin province hard. Many are out of work, including the province’s fabled elephants and their carers. Shops and restaurants are quiet as people mostly stay at home.
In Nakhon Sawan province, a 24-year old man arrested for selling methamphetamine pills suffocated to death as corrupt Thai police officers attempted to extort a bribe of two million baht for his release. The leaked footage sent chills down the collective spine of Thailand, and ignited—or renewed a debate over both the common practice of police brutality and the need for comprehensive police reform. Police reform is a tired subject because somehow, attempts have failed or not lived up to their billing.
