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กฎหมายว่าด้วยความเสมอภาคและการไม่เลือกปฏิบัติ

Abstract

Equality Principle was recognized by international human rights instruments and foreign laws.
However, “Discrimination” which comprises of two important factors i.e., “Ground of Discrimination”

such as gender, race, religious etc. and “Area of Discrimination” such as employment, education, good
and service etc., could be regarded as an obstacle to achieve equality. However, the main problem

of this research was to study whether the existing laws of Thailand have sufficiently covered practices
relating to discrimination. This research used qualitative method and conducted comparative analysis
with international human rights laws, foreign laws including laws of the EU, South Africa, Sweden,

Finland, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, India and the U.S. The results indicated that the
legal meaning and scope of “Discrimination” varied depending on different dimensions and
contexts. This research, by taking various factors from international human right laws and foreign

laws, has developed conceptual framework in order to differentiate “Discrimination” in the
context of human right laws from “Discrimination” in other context. In addition, the research found
that merely “Distinction of treatment” has not yet been deemed as “Discrimination” without

taking other legal factors into consideration. Regarding “Discrimination” in the context of human
right laws, although there were specific laws in recent Thai legal system that can be applied

to prohibit “Discrimination”, this research indicated that the problems of content, element,
and scope of those laws make them inappropriate and insufficient to protect an individual from
discriminatory practices. In particular, the ground and area of discrimination that has not yet

covered by those existing laws are, for example, discriminatory practices in private sectors
including employment, goods and service, discriminatory practices relating to certain grounds such

as criminal record, breastfeeding, etc. Furthermore, there are no specific laws to apply in case of
“Harassment” and “Hate Speech”. Consequently, this research proposes the enactment of
general law relating to Anti-Discrimination in order to cover the ground and area of discrimination

which have not been protected by the existing laws. In this regards, the model of discrimination law
was developed to be used for drafting of the general law. Apart from the proposal to enact new
law, this research also proposes suggestions relating to the amendment of existing laws in order to

achieve equality principle.
Keywords: Equality, Discrimination, Anti-Discrimination, Personal Rights and Liberties, Human Rights.

Kanathip Thongraweewong, et al.

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