(12 March 2024) The Cabinet of Thailand has granted approval for the ratification of the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances (ICPPED), following the submission of the proposal by the Ministry of Justice. The Cabinet has agreed to make a reservation to Article 42 of the ICEPPED, which pertains to the filing of interstate disputes with the International Court of Justice, as suggested by the Mistry of Justice. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was assigned to deposit the instruments of ratification accordingly.
Thailand presently possesses the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act 2022, which was enacted on February 22, 2023. This law criminalizes torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, and enforced disappearance. It is a domestic law that guarantees the compliance with the provisions of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment (CAT) to which Thailand is already a state party. The law also underscores Thailand’s commitment to preventing and protecting enforced disappearances under the ICPPED treaty, which it signed in 2012. As a result, the presence of this new regulation requires Thailand to eventually ratify ICPPED.
Thailand will become a state party to the ICPPED as a result of the Cabinet’s resolution from the March 12, 2024, meeting, and it will be binding on Thailand to comply with its legal obligations and guidelines under the Convention in promoting and protecting human rights, as well as resolving the issue of enforced disappearance, with the exception of Article 42, which will not be binding. The mentioned provision covers the case of bringing disputes between two or more state parties to be considered by the International Court of Justice; that is, if Thailand has a dispute with another state party regarding the interpretation or application of the Convention, the International Court of Justice will be unable to decide such disputes.
The Thai government has officially declared that it decided to make a reservation to Article 42 to exempt itself from the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice regarding its sovereignty. Therefore, reservations should be made in a manner that aligns with Thailand’s approach to making reservations under other international human rights treaties to which it is a state party. Thailand has also expressed the same reservation in three other international conventions: the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT).
The report presented to the Cabinet highlights that the Ministry of Justice has held meetings to prepare reservations and a statement of interpretation for the ICPPED to ratify the convention. In addition to the meeting’s resolution allowing Thailand’s preparation of reservations under Article 42, it was found that another resolution granted for Thailand to proceed. The decision is that for now Thailand will not declare that it recognizes the competence of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) under Article 31 and 32 (receiving and considering communications from or on behalf of individuals subjects to its jurisdiction, as well as communications from a state party to another state party which claim that another state party is not fulfilling the obligations under the convention). The government’s explanation is because in practice, several state parties have not declared their recognition of the CED’s power under Articles 31 and 32. That is, at this moment, the Thai government would not allow individual victims of violations of the convention provisions to submit communications to the committee. In addition, Thailand would decline to accept the committee’s reception of submissions from other states parties alleging that Thailand has failed to fulfill its commitments under the convention, and vice versa.
Pornpen Khongkachonkiet, Director of the Cross Cultural Foundation (CrCF), commented on another steps in increasing human rights standards in Thailand: “By accepting this ICCPEFD regulation, Thailand is required to periodically report the status of missing persons to the United Nations (UN) committee. For cases of enforced disappearance where a complaint has not been submitted, individuals can utilize both local and international reporting procedures to take action. Thailand now refuses to allow the UN to investigate and seek truth in each instance using the mechanism for accepting individual complaints for incidents in Thailand and other member states. However, we hoped Thailand would recognize the authority of the UN committee in the near future.”
Furthermore, Pornpen stated that Thailand does not currently allow the UN to consider individual complaints, which will have an impact on the case of ‘Transnational Repression’: the systematic violation of human rights through state cooperation in threatening and disappearing dissidents, which occurs frequently in this region. However, advocating and publicizing the truth about such acts must be intensified. “Cases of transnational repression in Asia have increased. Even without this method, we will campaign to expose the consequences of transnational repression, as seen in the cases of Wanchalerm Satsaksit, Surachai Danwattananusorn, and others, and demand each ASEAN government to cease participating and continue this activity.”
