Govt to ratify enforced disappearance treaty in June

According to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Thailand will ratify the International Convention for the Protection of Persons from Enforced Disappearance ( ICPPED), a fundamental human rights treaty, by June 13.

” On 14 May 2024, Thailand deposited an Instrument of Ratification to the]ICPPED], which may come into effect on the twentieth day after the meeting of the payment of the instrument”, it said on Friday.

Thailand is reaffirming its commitment to protect citizens from enforced kidnappings, it said. Vathayudh Vichankaiyakij, Thailand’s chargé d’affaires, submitted the acceptance files to the UN headquarters in New York.

Thailand is a signatory to seven international human rights agreements, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Agreement on the Rights of Children, the Agreement on the Abolition of All Kinds of Racial Discrimination, the Convention Against Torture and another Cruel, Inhumane, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Thailand did ratify the seventh of nine of its most important human rights treaties, the ICPPED.

The seventh treaty’s Protocol on the Protection of the Rights of Refugees Staff and Members of their Families, which is being ratified by Thailand, is still awaiting its ninth installment.

Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara, a former foreign minister, signed the ICPPED approval on April 26, two nights before his departure.

The ICPPED was approved by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in a solution from December 2006, and it became effective on December 23, 2010.

According to the International Commission of Jurists ( ICJ), the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances recorded 93 alleged enforced disappearances between 1980 and 1980, with 77 of those cases still unresolved.

The ICJ even welcomes Thailand’s approval of the ICPPED. According to Melissa Upreti, ICJ’s Asia-Pacific Regional Director,” The protocol is an essential tool that obligates states to take important measures to prevent the horrible murder of enforced disappearance, keep perpetrators guilty, and provide redress to victims and their families.”