UN Human Rights Office welcomes Thailand’s enactment of the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearances Act

BANGKOK (31 October 2022) – The UN Human Rights Office for South-East Asia (OHCHR) welcomes the enactment by Thailand of the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act, 2022.

The promulgation of this law is a critical milestone in combating torture, ill-treatment and enforced disappearances in Thailand. It includes provisions that will hold perpetrators to account under criminal law and incorporates key principles of non-derogation and non-refoulement, prohibiting officials from expelling, deporting and extraditing a person to another country where they may face substantial risks of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or enforced disappearance.

The Act will come into force 120 days after its publication in the Royal Gazette on 25 October 2022.

“The enactment of the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act 2022 is a major step in fulfilling Thailand’s commitments to achieving zero tolerance for acts of torture and enforced disappearances, as well as providing justice to the victims of torture and enforced disappearances,” said Cynthia Veliko, Regional Representative of OHCHR Regional Office for South-East Asia.

“With this Act, victims and families of torture and involuntary and enforced disappearances will have a new framework to seek legal redress, and to hold perpetrators of such heinous crimes to account,” said Ms. Veliko.

Thailand has 76 outstanding cases of enforced disappearances with the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances that remain unresolved.

Ms. Veliko highlighted three provisions that should still be amended to ensure full compliance with international human rights laws and standards. These include the application of amnesty for offences proscribed under the Act, the admissibility of evidence obtained through torture in criminal proceedings, and the imposition of a statute of limitations for cases of enforced disappearances.

“OHCHR commends Thailand for fulfilling commitments made during its last Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the enactment of this law. With this domestic legal framework now in place, Thailand can move ahead with ratifying the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance as well as the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment” said Ms. Veliko. “The OHCHR Regional Office is available to provide any technical support that the Government may require”.

ENDS

For more information and media requests, please contact:  in Bangkok, Wannaporn Samutassadong (+66 65 986 0810 / wannaporn.samutassadong@un.org).

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