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Final Research Report: Laws relating to Equality and Anti-Discrimination

Kanathip Thongraweewong, et al.

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