Women’s organisations wanted Jurin fired as chief of national panel
Over a dozen women’s organisations on Monday called for the removal of Democrat Party leader Jurin Laksanawisit as chairman of a national panel that promotes women’s role and status after a former deputy leader of his party was charged with sexual harassment and rape.
In a joint statement, the organisations strongly criticised Jurin, who is deputy prime minister and commerce minister, and his party for inaction after former Democrat deputy leader Prinn Panitchpakdi was charged with committing sexual harassment and rape in at least three cases.
Prinn resigned as party deputy leader and as a party member after the allegations against him surfaced last week.
The joint statement pointed out that the Democrat Party, which Prinn once belonged to, has so far not shown any sign of intending to carry out a fact-finding investigation, although one of Prinn’s accusers used to be a member of the party’s election campaign team.
The joint statement cited remarks of a party spokesman and its Bangkok governor candidate as indications that the party would take no action in the cases related to Prinn, although Jurin is the chairman of the national panel in charge of women’s rights and protection.
The joint statement quoted Democrat deputy spokesman Akkadej Wongpithakroj as saying that the cases were personal issues and Prinn had quit all party posts. The joint statement said Democrat Bangkok governor candidate, Prof Dr Suchatvee Suwansawat, had made a similar comment.
The women's organisations said the allegations against Prinn should not be deemed as personal cases because Prinn used to hold a high position in the party and he also played a role in the party’s Bangkok governor election contest.
The joint statement criticised Jurin for not leading his party to show responsibility “properly” despite being the chairman of the committee promoting women’s status. Jurin himself had once proposed on the national agenda the issue of sexual violence against women.
“This is a reflection that Jurin lacks true understanding and genuine intention to solve the problem of violence against women,” the joint statement said.
The women's organisations made three demands:
Remove Jurin as chairman of the national committee promoting women’s status and relieve him of all responsibilities related to promoting sexual equality because of his failure to bring about any change.
The Democrat Party must jointly take responsibility for the actions of its former deputy leader although he has resigned. The party must set up a fact-finding panel to work in parallel with police to investigate and provide remedy to all the alleged victims of its deputy leader.
The government must reform its national mechanisms to provide justice to women and children affected by all kinds of violence, especially sexual violence.
The organisations that signed the joint statement included the Foundation for Women, the Friends of Women Foundation, the Women and Men Progressive Women Foundation, the Foundation for Promoting Social Equality, the Foundation for Labour and Career Developments, the Justice for Peace Foundation, and the Child Youth and Family Foundation.
