Hello friends of CrCF
Thanks to my team, we are now releasing an English version of our effort for a better world in spreading words and works to protect human dignity in Thailand. This 2025 is a challenging year for us all in Thailand and beyond. “Beyond Shackles: Protecting Human Dignity” is one of our strategic litigations to end shackles in Thailand. Foot shackles or leg irons, sometimes accompanied by restraints, became a common practice in Thailand for detainees to wear during court trial proceedings. However, the norm violates the presumption of innocence and human dignity, and it may constitute a cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, as guaranteed by Thai constitution, the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act (Anti-Torture Act), and international conventions such as the CAT and ICCPR.
Thailand has enacted the Anti-Torture Act for two years now since all parties celebrated the advancement of this law to combine torture and enforced disappearance offenses into one stand-alone law. In addition, this law also criminalizes ill-treatment and inhuman punishment with minor punishments aimed at prevention.Despite their legal status, CrCF found that more than 70,000 on-trial/pre-trial detainees (denied bail or unaffordable bail money) are treated as if they are already convicted criminals. They are forced to wear prison uniforms, shackled at the ankles when transported to court, and even made to walk barefoot into the courtroom. Their living conditions are often cramped, unsanitary, and substandard.
Thai society has long ignored the issues at the Department of Correction. As a result, there has been no scrutiny on them. Bung’s death is one of the consequences of turning a blind eye to the rights of detainees and prisoners in the Department of Corrections’ custody. In May 2025, we collaborated with Professor Emeritus Dr. Thongchai Winichakul, a well-known historian, to file a complaint at Bangkok Ratchada Court to remove iron shackles for Annon Nampa, a prominent human rights lawyer who has been detained for two years related to lese majeste charges. Thongchai called these inmates “ghosts” in society’s eyes.
“Do you even know how many inmates there are in Thailand now? At least over a hundred thousand. These people have disappeared from society’s awareness. These are Thai social values from ancient times. We’ve always seen prisoners as not fully human. We’ve inherited that belief, not just the state but ordinary people like us. They are ghosts, hungry spirits, sub-humans, and easy to overlook.” Thongchai told CrCF in an interview.
We are hopeful that leg shackles will one day be outdated in Thailand, rather than being routinely used for all pre-trial detainees in front of Thai judges, whether through judicial review, administrative order, or legislative review. Dignity for everyone.
Aside from the fight to remove the leg shackles, in August 2025, CrCF released a report titled “A Cry from the Pit to the Hill: The Enduring Crisis of Enforced Disappearance in Lahu Communities in Northern Thailand,” which addressed the grave human rights violations of enforced disappearance and their profound and devastating impacts on Lahu ethnic communities in Northern Thailand. The War on Drugs, implemented in 2003, has harmed countless individuals and communities and left consequences to this day. After 20 years, unseen stories have been brought to light again because of the efforts of our team, led by Prakaidao Phurksakasemsuk, our deputy director, and the local Lahu community in Fang District, Chiangmai.
We hope your kind attention to this first newsletter will shed light on human rights issues in Thailand that mainstream media does not cover and continues to support us.
All the best
Pornpen Khongkachonkiet
