Page 24 - รายงานผลการประเมินสถานการณ์ด้านสิทธิมนุษยชนของประเทศไทย ปี 2563

As for the situation regarding political protests led by school and university students,
2020 saw many protests happening in several parts of the country; some are political
in nature while others are aimed at putting forward demands relating to economic and social

rights. Such protests took place almost throughout the year except during the period under
the state of emergency, starting from the end of March 2020 as the government found it
necessary to implement strict measures to control the spread of COVID 19 in protecting the
people’s right to health, including prohibition of any gathering or assembly. However, when

the spread of COVID 19 situation improved, the government eased the measures to enable
the people to organize gathering activities and exercise their right to peaceful assembly
under the public assembly law from August 2020 onward, but protestors still had to observe
the disease control measures as set out by the authorities. After the measures were eased,
there has been a series of protests organized by various groups at different locations.
The NHRCT has monitored the situation very closely and issued several statements or press

releases where it deemed appropriate to the situation to ensure that both the authorities and
protesters recognize and respect the human rights principles in their undertakings. It has also
made a number of recommendations to the government and concerned agencies to adopt
certain measures to enable the people to exercise their liberty to assemble peacefully as
guaranteed by the Constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

(ICCPR). From the NHRCT’s monitoring, it is found that in general there have been no serious
violent incidents during the protests apart from minor clashes between the protesters and
state officers in charge of maintaining law and order in certain cases. Both sides have shown
tolerance to avoid using violence. However, there are two incidents which are of concern to
the NHRCT, one at Pathumwan intersection and the other in front of the Parliament House,
where the authorities decided to disperse the protesters by using water cannons mixed

with chemicals and tear gases. With regard to the protest at Pathumwan intersection on
16 October 2020, the NHRCT was of the view that there was no act of violence to such degree
that would justify the need to end the protest, thus the use of water cannons mixed with
chemicals is not proportionate to the exigency of the situation. However, on the whole,
the government has facilitated the people’s exercise of their right to peaceful assembly

without interference. Despite the failure of some organizers to inform the authorities
concerned about the protests beforehand according to Section 10 of the Public Assembly
Act, B.E 2558 (2015), the protests were allowed to continue. The State has charged some
protest leaders for violations of related laws, which is in line with the ICCPR Committee’s
(Human Rights Committee) general comment with regard to the right to peaceful assembly.
The accused protestors are generally granted provisional release during trials.

22 คณะกรรมการสิทธิมนุษยชนแห่งชาติ
National Human Rights Commission of Thailand