A Force Profonde by Kolodziej Edward A.;

Author:Kolodziej, Edward A.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 2019-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Thailand

The overall human rights record in Thailand has been positive, with improvements in labor laws that prohibit child labor and sex discrimination and that regulate working hours, overtime, and benefits. The role of the armed forces has diminished since 1992, and the army is increasingly professional. A variety of NGO human rights groups and a vibrant, outspoken press exist in Thailand to monitor potential violations. The rise of NGOs is a particularly striking aspect of civil society in Thailand. In January 2001, Thaksin Shinawatra became prime minister. He has shown authoritarian tendencies and has used his vast wealth (from telecommunications) and political power to oppress the media. This is disturbing to Thais, who desire to keep their open press.

Despite its positive human rights record, Thailand has serious intra-societal conflict. The most serious human rights issue in Thailand is the government’s treatment of refugees, including some thousands of Burmese, many of whom have fled into Thai territory to escape the military dictatorship in Burma. In addition to these new refugees, a half million other displaced persons reside in Thailand and are vulnerable to arrest and deportation. Thai authorities argue that Thailand is a poor nation that cannot afford the high costs of taking care of refugees. They argue that the refugees also undermine Thai relations with Burma, a nation with which it shares two thousand miles of border. In January 2000, Thais killed members of a Karen refugee group that had taken a hospital (including the doctors, nurses, and patients) hostage in Ratchaburi. Although the killing of the perpetrators appeared to be execution-style, Thais enthusiastically supported their government’s policy to crack down on violence-oriented refugees, even if they were escaping from an oppressive country.

Human rights advocates have argued that although the Thai government has legitimate security concerns, those concerns do not justify acts that endanger refugees (Human Rights Watch 2000a, 1). Thai government leaders responded that they desired to reduce the number of Burmese refugees in Bangkok to preclude destabilization and to regulate more closely the movements of Burmese refugees who the Thai government believed were seriously undermining the Thai economy. Thai leaders responded mildly to the siege of the Burmese embassy in Bangkok in October 1999, but violently to the takeover by Burmese insurgents of the Ratchaburi provincial hospital several months later. The sieges were the work of small, radical organizations, but the Thai government used the incidents to justify a wider crackdown.

The Thai government has not signed the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, nor does it have its own domestic refugee law. The UN High Commissioner on Refugees has pressed the Thai government to accept a broader definition of persons fleeing conflict that would include forced relocations, porterage, and labor. Thus far Thailand has not based its decisions on whether the conditions that forced Burmese to flee are such that they are deserving of refugee protection.

In 2000 the Thai government was chosen by free elections within the context of civil liberties. The prime minister, Chuan Leekpai,

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