BANGKOK
Human Rights Watch has called on a military-appointed Thai constitution drafting committee to scrap a proposal it says would “gut” the national human rights commission by merging it with the ombudsman’s office, paving the way for “further repression.”
“Since the May 2014 military coup, Thailand has been a human rights disaster that needs an independent National Human Rights Commission [NHRC] to hold the junta accountable -- now more than ever,” Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said in a statement Wednesday.
HRW stressed that the new constitution should ensure the national rights agency be “independent and impartial” rather than being merged with another office.
The statement comes after Borwornsak Uwanno, Constitution Drafting Committee chief, announced Jan. 30 that a draft constitution included language on merging the NHRC and the ombudsman’s office into a single body -- that would be called the Office of the Ombudsman and Human Rights Protection -- since the two bodies served similar functions.
“Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission and Ombudsman serve very different purposes and shouldn’t be merged,” Adams said.
Human Rights Watch criticized the Committee for failing to have serious consultations with civil society in order to guarantee the selection of independent and qualified human rights commissioners.
According to the Committee’s proposal, the joint agency would be made up of 11 commissioners selected in what the rights group calls a “closed and unaccountable vetting system by the Thai senate.”
Human Rights Watch also stressed that the Committee has not considered long-standing criticisms of the lack of transparency and inclusiveness in the selection of the national rights agency’s seven current members -- chosen by a screening committee in a 2009 closed meeting.
“Instead of making a weak human rights agency even weaker, the Constitution Drafting Committee should be seeking ways to ensure a broad-based, effective, and independent membership,” Adams said.
Meanwhile, civil society representatives in Thailand have also expressed opposition to the planned merger, submitting a petition to Uwanno on Tuesday.
Voicing similar criticisms as Human Rights Watch, the group -- led by the Union for Civil Liberty, the Human Rights Lawyers' Association and the Foundation for Consumers -- said the two Thai agencies had distinct ways of operating.
The petition explained that while the ombudsman is tasked with monitoring state agencies in terms of the conduct of civil servants and the implementation of laws, the rights agency serves the purpose of verifying legal details and complaints on human rights.
The petition also stressed that the process for selecting NHRC commissioners must be made independent of bureaucracy, and suggested that the drafting committee open channels for public scrutiny and participation.
Uwanno has agreed to reconsider the merger proposal, underlining that Committee members had been motivated by the interests of the general public, the Nation reported Wednesday.
"Under the new constitution, people will be able to submit complaints directly" to the newly merged agency, he said, explaining that the investigation period would be shortened by one year.
Uwanno added that the NHRC’s future was uncertain with the term of current commissioners expiring in June, and the possible extension their term -- or the nomination of new commissioners -- depending on the National Legislative Assembly.
On Dec. 31, the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights issued a report recommending the NHRC’s ranking be downgraded to “B” status -- a move which would result in it losing its privileges to present at the U.N. Human Rights Council.
The report condemned how the NHRC consisted of “officials from a very small number of public institutions, with no clear representation, or a requirement for consultation with key stakeholder groups or civil society,” with its members “displaying publicly their political affiliations whilst undertaking official functions.”
It also expressed concern over delays in the agency’s investigations of serious human rights issues. Such incidents included violence during confrontations in 2010 between the government of then Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and the “Red Shirts” -- supporters of the deposed Shinawatra clan, long at odds with the conservative establishment -- and a 2013 uprising of "Yellow Shirts" against the government of former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, overthrown in the May 22 coup.
Adams warned Wednesday, “The Constitutional Drafting Committee’s merger idea has the potential to make the international downgrade of Thailand’s human rights commission a permanent one.”
“If adopted, the new body is unlikely to play any sort of serious rights protection role and would lose all international standing and credibility.”
