In 2024, rulings by the Constitutional Court that dissolved the reformist Move Forward Party and impeached Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin undermined Thailand’s teetering efforts to restore democracy after many years of military rule. The new government of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has done little to improve respect for fundamental freedoms and resolve outstanding human rights problems. In one positive step in September, the government finalized the marriage equality bill making Thailand the first country in Southeast Asia to recognize same-sex relationships.
Dissolution of the Move Forward Party and Sacking of Prime Minister Srettha
On August 7, the Constitutional Court dissolved the opposition Move Forward Party for advocating reform of the Penal Code’s article 112 on lese majesté (insulting the monarchy) and imposed 10-year political bans on its executive members. This decision was based on the previous ruling on January 31 that the party’s campaign to amend the royal insult law and its support for monarchy reform movements amounted to an attempt to abolish Thailand’s constitutional democracy with the king as head of state. The remaining 143 Move Forward Party members of parliament later regrouped to form the People’s Party.
The Constitutional Court sacked Srettha on August 14 for lacking integrity and seriously violating ethical standards because he appointed a cabinet member who was convicted of bribing court officials in 2008.
New Government
The new government took office in September—led by Paetongtarn, who promised during her 2023 election campaign to discuss in parliament preventing royal insult charges from being used as a political tool and to release on bail detained democracy activists and dissidents. After becoming prime minister, she vowed to “make every inch of Thailand to become an area of opportunity for Thai people to dream, to be creative, and to define their own future.”
Despite such pledges and Thailand’s election to the United Nations Human Rights Council for the 2025-2027 term, the new government has not taken concrete steps to address outstanding issues from the UN Universal Periodic Review. The parliament approved the Comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with the European Union in August. This has not resulted in any significant cooperation to improve respect for human rights. Paetongtarn has yet to follow up on the previous government’s assurance it would stop the Myanmar military from purchasing weapons via Thailand’s banking system.
Restrictions on Freedoms of Expression and Peaceful Assembly
Expression of critical and dissenting opinions remains restricted in Thailand. As of August, at least 1,959 people have been prosecuted for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful public assembly—including at least 274 people facing lese majesté charges. Thai authorities have often held critics of the monarchy for months without access to bail, awaiting trial. On May 14, anti-monarchy activist Netiporn Sanesangkhom died during pretrial detention.
Making critical or offensive comments about the monarchy is also a serious criminal offense under the Computer-Related Crime Act. Thai authorities have also used sedition charges to prosecute over 150 democracy activists and dissidents.
At least 1,469 people believed to be involved in 2020 protests are still being prosecuted ostensibly for violating Covid-19 containment measures adopted by the Emergency Decree, even though that decree was lifted in October 2022.
On September 5, Thai authorities pressured the Alliance Française Bangkok to cancel a book launch about Wanchalearm Satsaksit, who was forcibly disappeared in Cambodia in 2020.
Enforced Disappearance and Torture
Thailand is a state party to international conventions against torture and enforced disappearance. However, its Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act—which became effective in February 2022—is weakly enforced.
None of the outstanding cases of enforced disappearance—including of nine exiled Thai dissidents who were abducted in neighboring countries in recent years—have been resolved. The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances raised concerns about enforced disappearances in the context of transnational transfers of dissidents between Thailand and neighboring countries.
Numerous allegations that police and military personnel tortured ethnic Malay Muslims in custody during the government’s counterinsurgency operations in the southern border provinces remain unresolved. There are also credible reports of torture being used as a form of punishment of military conscripts.
Human Rights Defenders
The government has failed to fulfill its obligation to ensure human rights defenders can carry out their work in a safe and enabling environment.
On June 25, unidentified gunmen shot dead Roning Dolah, a prominent human rights defender who assisted ethnic Malay Muslim victims of arbitrary arrest and torture by Thai security forces, in Pattani province. The killing and enforced disappearance of human rights defenders and other civil society activists is a serious blot on Thailand’s human rights record. Coverups have effectively blocked efforts to pursue justice, even in high-profile cases such as those of ethnic Lahu activist Chaiyaphum Pasae, ethnic Karen activist Porlajee Rakchongchareon, and Muslim lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit.
Despite the adoption of Thailand’s National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights in 2019, Thai authorities have failed to protect activists and whistleblowers from retaliatory lawsuits by state agencies and private companies.
Lack of Accountability for State-Sponsored Abuses
Thai authorities failed to bring to trial 14 former military personnel and government officials indicted in the criminal charges—including murder, attempted murder, and unlawful detention—related to the violent dispersal of ethnic Malay Muslim protesters in Tak Bai district of Narathiwat province in October 2004 that left 85 dead and several hundred injured. The 20-year statute of limitations ended in October 2024, preventing further legal action.
There has been little progress in criminal and civil cases related to abuses and excessive use of force by riot police to disperse democracy rallies from 2020-2023.
Soldiers were responsible for most casualties during the 2010 political confrontations with the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, known as the “Red Shirts,” that left at least 99 dead and more than 2,000 injured. No military personnel or government officials from the administration of then-Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva have been prosecuted.
The government also has failed to pursue criminal investigations of the more than 2,800 killings that accompanied then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s “war on drugs” in 2003.
Violence and Abuses in the Southern Border Provinces
The armed conflict in Thailand’s Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, and Songkhla provinces has resulted in more than 7,000 deaths since January 2004. In 2024, insurgent attacks on military targets and civilians continued despite dialogues between representatives of the government and the separatist Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN). Meanwhile, Thai security forces committed torture, unlawful killings, and other abuses of ethnic Malay Muslims with impunity. In many cases, Thai authorities provided payments to the victims or their families to avoid prosecutions.
Thailand has not endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration, while BRN continued to recruit children for insurgent activities.
Refugees, Asylum Seekers, and Migrant Workers
Thailand is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 protocol, but its Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act prohibits refoulement—the forcible return of anyone to a place where they would face a genuine risk of persecution, torture, or other ill-treatment, or a threat to their life. However, Thai officials continued to treat refugees and asylum seekers as irregular migrants subject to arrest and deportation. Thai authorities violated the international prohibition against refoulement by returning refugees and asylum seekers to countries where they are likely to face persecution.
On June 12, the UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders expressed concerns about the arrest of Montagnard refugee Y Quynh Bdap and urged Thai authorities not to extradite him to Vietnam.
Escalating fighting in Myanmar and the junta’s enforcement of the conscription law has raised concerns about more people fleeing Myanmar and their ability to access to protection in Thailand. In April, the Foreign Ministry stated that Thailand had prepared to temporarily receive up to 100,000 Myanmar refugees—in addition to approximately 90,000 people living in nine refugee camps along the Myanmar border for the past three decades.
Thai authorities have refused to consider Lao, Hmong, Uyghurs, Rohingya, and North Koreans for refugee status under the National Screening Mechanism.
Approximately 50 Uyghurs and several hundred Rohingya are being held in indefinite detention in squalid conditions in immigration detention centers across Thailand, where the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is not allowed access.
In August, Thailand withdrew its reservation to article 22 of the Convention on Rights of the Child regarding protection of children seeking refugee status or who are considered a refugee. But the Education Ministry shut down six schools for children from Myanmar across the country in September 2024 for illegally teaching in Burmese language.
Migrant workers of all nationalities are barred by Thailand’s Labor Relations Act from organizing and establishing labor unions or serving as a government-recognized labor union leader.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
In September, the government promulgated the marriage equality bill adopted by the parliament earlier in 2024, making Thailand the first country in Southeast Asia to recognize same-sex relationships. However, Thailand still has no procedure for transgender people to be legally recognized according to their gender identity.