CDC urged to reject NCPO proposals
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AN INTERNATIONAL rights group yesterday called on the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) to reject a request by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to consider including in the new charter a clause exempting it from accountability for acti
Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), said on the organisation’s website that such a blanket immunity clause in Thailand’s new constitution would allow the military to commit abuses without fear of prosecution.
“Given the Thai military’s long record of human rights abuses, this would effectively be giving soldiers a licence to kill,” said Adams.
The NCPO sent the CDC a 10-point recommendation to be considered for the new charter.
Among those was a request for the CDC to consider including a clause stating that the use of military force with honest intention to protect national security against international and domestic threats is not subject to civil, criminal or administrative accountability.
HRW said Thailand’s military has operated with impunity for decades.
It claimed that not a single soldier has been held legally accountable for deaths or injuries during crackdowns on protesters, dating from the 1970s through the latest political confrontations in April and May 2010.
Meechai Ruchupan, chairman of the CDC, said shortly after receiving the NCPO’s recommendations that the CDC was not obliged to draft the charter as suggested by any agencies.
He said that suggestions made by the NCPO carried the same weight as those submitted by any agency. The CDC would try to consider every suggestion, he said, but that did not mean that it would put every recommendation into the draft.
Human Rights Watch said Thailand is a signatory to several international human rights treaties and the government has an obligation to make sure none of its agents are allowed immunity to commit serious rights violations.
Adams said the CDC should immediately reject the NCPO’s proposals.
“The new constitution should ensure the law applies to all people equally. No one should be able to escape prosecution and accountability for rights violations,” he said.
In a related development, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said the NCPO’s suggestions to the CDC were just like those of any other agency. It’s just a broad framework proposed for the new constitution drafting, and the CDC actually invited and welcomed all recommendations.
The government itself, he said, is now preparing to submit its proposals to the CDC as well. Concerned agencies can at this point make recommendations, but once the first draft is finished, expected to be in January, any views proposed afterwards would rather be in a serious charter review and consultation process.
