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Execlusive Summary

and right to live in good environment since the town planning law and building control law that had
content and process to protect the people’s right to participation and right to live in good environment.
When enforcement of these two laws were exempted in areas where special economic zone projects Summary
were to be implemented, local people there faced risks from various impacts.

In addition, situations were found to present challenges from use of Section 44 of the Constitution
of the Kingdom of Thailand (Interim), B.E. 2557 (2014) to enact or enforce laws or policies related to
economic development in some areas by exempting certain enforcement of law or be lenient for some
standards of actions, resulting in risks that may have human rights impacts.

Human rights defenders

At present, human rights defenders are very important in the promotion and fights for human

rights protection. In Thailand, there are individual persons or groups of persons who present themselves
as human rights defenders in the area of natural resources and environment or right in the justice
process, all of which are related to use of state power. When situation concerning human rights
defenders was considered, it was found that cases of human rights defenders facing problems and

obstacles in their fights to protect and demand rights and liberties of themselves and other people still
continued to occur continuously whether they were impacts from legal mechanisms being used to sue
human rights defenders in court or uses of power by state officials which were suspected to be done
illegally. It could be considered that the universally adopted principle of the ICCPR and the Universal

Declaration on Human Rights Defenders were still not much accepted or put into practices in Thailand.
At the same time, it was concerned that taking human rights defenders to court on a charge of libel
by advertisement had become a trend which may make them fearful to come out and express their
views through various channels, especially online media. It is also noted that importance of human

rights defenders was an issue that did not appear clearly in legal mechanisms or state policies.
The NHRCT recommends the government to take following actions: (1) conduct a study on
appropriateness for having legislation to prevent Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (SLAPP)
as a legal mechanism to protect individual persons or groups of people who act as human rights

defenders; (2) listen to and monitor situations faced by human rights defenders in order to know their
problems and find ways to solve the problems; and (3) raise awareness of state agencies about the
justice process in order that they understand human rights defenders and context of various duties
related to human rights defenders in order to consider appropriateness for enforcement of law and

do related duties.

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