International Mechanism Submissions

This report outlines violations of the Convention Against Torture in Thailand in the context of the death penalty and persons prosecuted for, charged with, and convicted of, capital crimes. As explained further below, torture is prevalent in detention facilities and impunity persists. Courts continue to impose death sentences, including for offenses that do not constitute the “most serious crimes.”

Overwhelmingly, Thailand’s retention of the death penalty and treatment of people on death row both illustrate and exacerbate Thailand’s failure to uphold its obligations under the Convention. There is insufficient legal aid available to people charged with death-eligible offenses. People in detention face ill-treatment and torture during interrogation, and measures to combat such coercion and torture have fallen short.

Thailand’s Department of Corrections has denied civil society organizations and international human rights groups access to places of detention for monitoring purposes. Drug-related offenses are death-penalty-eligible, and women on death row are disproportionately convicted of drug-related offenses. Prisons in Thailand remain overcrowded and under-resourced, resulting in poor detention conditions. People on death row have been denied access to work programs and drug rehabilitation programs available to the general prison population. Thailand retains a suite of laws which make it impossible for human rights defenders to bring incidents of torture to light without fear of reprisal, and Thailand continues to prosecute protesters, civil society members, and activists for speaking out against torture.