In March, the number of lèse-majesté lawsuits filed since 2020 surpassed 300, with six new cases filed last month. More individuals are being imprisoned due to denial bail requests. Additionally, the police has pursued charges against participants of public assemblies, such as the P-Move protest during Srettha’s government era. Charges under the Emergency Decree are […]
The current state of human rights in Thailand remains grim. Since Thailand’s 2006 coup, at least 5,027 individuals have been prosecuted for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. Almost a third of these prosecutions occurred between 18 July 2020 and 31 January 2024, during which at least 1,947 individuals were politically […]
Thai Lawyers for Human Rights’s Statement TLHR Expresses Concern Regarding the Constitutional Court’s Ruling Finding that Proposals to Amend Section 112 of the Criminal Code Constitute An Act to Overthrow the Government On 31 January 2024, the Constitutional Court ruled that Mr. Pita Limjaroenrat and the Move Forward Party violated Section 49, paragraph 1, of […]
(This article was first published in Thai on 20 September 2023. The statistics in this article have not been updated since then.) In a cabinet resolution in 1985, the Thai government announced the celebration of “National Youth Day” every year on 20 September. As Thailand enters 2024 with a new government led by the Pheu […]
Political prosecution continued at the end of 2023, where, despite few new lawsuits, witness and verdict hearings have taken place routinely for the existing cases filed between 2020 and 2022. The courts have passed judgments in at least 12 lèse-majesté cases, resulting in dismissals as well as guilty rulings, whereas all nine Emergency Decree and […]
In November, political prosecution continued, including the filing of at least four new lese-majeste cases. Meanwhile, various courts have passed verdicts in lese-majeste cases week after week, driving the number of people detained during and after trials up by at least 20. As for the situation regarding sedition charges under Section 116, the courts have […]
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (Working Group), a special mechanism under the UN Human Rights Council, has published its opinion on 23 October 2023 (A/HRC/WGAD/2023/49) regarding the case of “ Tawan” Tantawan Tuatulanon, a 21-year-old student and activist who was prosecuted under Section 112 for defamation of the King. The Working Group […]
The month of October resulted in one of the highest number of verdicts in one month, 16 in total, coming from both the Court of First Instance and Court of Appeals in lese-majeste cases. Meanwhile, three more people prosecuted for political reasons have ended up in detention. In Chiang Mai, a military officer accused activists […]
[Information as of 5 August 2023.] In light of the problematic formation of the new government, citizens have gathered to call upon the Senate, political parties, and independent organizations to respect their voices. As such, it became imperative to monitor how the laws would be used in response to these activities. In July 2023, the […]
In June, while only few new politically-motivated lawsuits emerged, the trials of many existing ones proceeded in full swing. The courts have issued verdicts for at least 12 lese-majeste cases within a course of merely one month acquitting, convicting (imprisonment), or suspending the punishment of the defendants. As a result, two more people in these […]
Columbia Law School On June 13, school administrators expelled 15-year-old Thanalop “Yok” Phalanchai from Triam Udom Suksa Phatthakan School. She is the youngest child known to have been charged with Thailand’s lese-majeste law to date. In a statement later released by the school, Yok’s expulsion was solely because she failed to enroll by the agreed […]
On 1 and 2 June 2023, the examination of prosecution witnesses in a trial of the prominent political activists and Move Forward MP-elect Chonthicha Jaengraew at the Ratchada Criminal Court proceeded in the absence of the defense lawyer and despite Ms. Chonthicha’s request that the hearings be postponed until her lawyer is available to attend […]
