Page 35 - รายงานผลการประเมินสถานการณ์ด้านสิทธิมนุษยชนของประเทศไทย ปี 2560

Part 1 Assessment of Rights and Liberties according to the
Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand, B.E. 2560 (2017)

The Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand, B.E. 2560 (2017), which has been put into effect since

the 6 April 2017, recognizes and protects basic human rights of individual persons in Chapter I General
th
Provisions, and in Chapter III, recognizes rights and liberties of the Thai people in addition to the rights
and liberties as guaranteed specifically by the provisions in the Constitution, a person shall enjoy the
rights and liberties to perform any act which is not prohibited or restricted by the Constitution or other

laws, and shall be protected by the Constitution, insofar as the exercise of such rights or liberties does
not affect or endanger the security of the State or public order or good morals, and does not violate
the rights or liberties of other persons. Reviewing the previous Constitutions, it was found that some
rights prescribed the Chapter about rights and liberties were not really put into practices, certain rights

and liberties are therefore provided in the Chapter V Duties of the State, so that these rights are put into
practices by providing them to be the duty of the State, the people and the community shall have the
right to follow up and urge the State to perform such act, as well as to take legal proceedings against
a relevant State agency to have it provide the people or community such benefit in accordance with

the rules and procedures provided by law. Additions were then made to the Chapter Duties of the
State to guarantee that the State must act according to the provisions of the Constitution, so that rights
of the people to benefit from the State are really in effect. The Chapter on Duties of the State is an
important principle and it is necessary for the State to completely put them in practice appropriately,

depending on monetary and financial status of the country. Moreover, there is Chapter XVI on National
Reform to eliminate conflicts and reduce disparity in society by providing that the enactment of the
law under paragraph one and the promulgation thereof shall be executed within one hundred and
twenty days from the date of promulgation of this Constitution, and the implementation of each area

of reform shall commence within one year from the date of promulgation of this Constitution.
Comparing the Constitutions of the Kingdom of Thailand, B.E. 2540 (1997) and B.E. 2550 (2007) with
the present one, it was found that although rights had existed before emergence of the State and the
State had the duty to respect, protect and fulfil with putting these rights into practices, as efforts were

made by the current administration to create various rights, the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand
B.E. 2560 (2017) therefore has provisions to make rights created by the State more important. Even if the
2017 Constitution has provisions to distribute power and administration to micro level and requires the
Council of Ministers to declare its policies to the Parliament in line with the Duty of the State, policies of

the State and National Strategies, eligible voters, totaling no less than 10,000 in number, could propose
new laws according to the Chapter on Rights and Liberties of the Thai people or the Chapter on Duty
of the State. However, to make promotion and protection of human rights a reality and sustainable, it is
necessary to have processes to promote and guarantee that the people as the rights holders could really

participate in these processes.

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