Page 39 - รายงานผลการประเมินสถานการณ์ด้านสิทธิมนุษยชนของประเทศไทย ปี 2560

communities centers for prevention and fighting narcotic drug problem and use of chemicals to prevent and
eradicate pests which affected human health. Therefore the government was recommended to speed up public
health care reform in term of health insurance system, primary medicine system, and health care manpower
management to reduce inequality among the people in term of their access to right to public health care service.

Right to work

ICESCR, of which Thailand is a state party and has many obligations that must be observed,

guarantees right to work in Article 6, 7 and 8, including (1) right to work, (2) right to the enjoyment of just
and favourable conditions of work, and (3) right to form and join trade union, while the Constitution of the
Kingdom of Thailand, B.E. 2560 (2017) has provisions about labour in Section 30, Section 40 and Section 42.
In 2017, the government took several actions to promote and protect the right to work, such as

proclamation of the Labour Protection Act (6 Issue), B.E. 2560 (2017) which added provisions about
th
retirement and payment of compensation in case of retirement, lifting minimum wage rate in some
areas and implementing administrative measures to continuously deal with informal labour. These
actions were in line with the brief notes on action report no.1 and no.2 of the ICESCR Committee

and recommendations from UPR process, Round 2, especially about expansion of protection by the
social insurance scheme, for example. However, it was still found that some problems and obstacles may
prevent protection of Thai labour’s right to work from being as effective as it should, such as demand
for minimum wage rate that was inconsistent with the cost of living and the minimum wage rate was not

equally raised all over the country. The minimum wage, even after being raised, was still not enough to
cover costs of living for a worker oneself and other two family members which is a principle adopted
by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Thai state also still did not make any progress in term of
being a state party to ILO Conventions no.87 and no.98 as much as it should. Some groups and types of

employees were not covered by the minimum wage requirements. Absence of check on rules related to
work according to provisions in the Labour Protection Act (6 Issue) B.E. 2560 (2017).
th

Part 4 Assessment of human rights situation of 6 groups of people

Human rights situations of 6 specific groups of people are as follows:

Children

Thailand has 13,730,927 children aged 0 - 17 years old. Committee of the UN Convention on the Rights
of the Child (CRC) has concerns on human rights situations of children in Thailand in some major areas,
that are malnutrition, lack of law to regulate advertisements of breast milk substitute products, protection

of children from sexual exploitation, protection of children from violence, protection of relocated children
and children of relocated labour, prevention of accidents and injuries among children, and development

38 | รายงานผลการประเมินสถานการณ์ด้านสิทธิมนุษยชนของประเทศไทย ปี ๒๕๖๐