The UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) has praised the enactment of Thailand's Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act, 2022, but noted that more could've been done to meet international standards.
The promulgation of this law is a critical milestone in combating torture, ill-treatment and enforced disappearances in Thailand, the OHCHR said yesterday.
According to OHCHR, the law includes provisions that will hold perpetrators accountable.
It incorporates key principles of non-derogation and non-refoulement, prohibiting officials from expelling, deporting and extraditing a person to another country where they may face substantial risks of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or enforced disappearance, it added.
The law was published in the Royal Gazette on Oct 25 and is expected to come into force after 120 days.
Cynthia Veliko, Regional Representative of OHCHR Regional Office for South-East Asia, said the law will also benefit the victims of these crimes.
"The enactment of the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act 2022 is a major step in fulfilling Thailand's commitments to achieving zero tolerance for acts of torture and enforced disappearances," she said.
"With this act, victims and families of torture and involuntary and enforced disappearances will have a new framework to seek legal redress and to hold perpetrators of such heinous crimes to account," she added.
Thailand has 76 outstanding cases of enforced disappearances with the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances that remain unresolved, the UN said.
Ms Veliko highlighted three provisions that should still be amended to ensure full compliance with international law and standards.
These were the application of an amnesty for offences proscribed under the act, the admissibility of evidence obtained through torture in criminal proceedings and the imposition of a statute of limitations for cases of enforced disappearances.
