Thailand faces ongoing human rights issues, says new Amnesty report
In its 2026 annual report, Amnesty International raises concerns about ongoing human rights violations in Thailand, including the detention of political prisoners and the lack of protection for refugees.On 21 April, Amnesty International launched its annual report “The State of the World’s Human Rights,” covering the human rights situation in 144 countries. It warned of a systematic regression of human rights driven by an attack on international laws, multilateralism, and civil society.In Thailand, the report notes that the authorities continued to suppress freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, as protesters, activists, and academics are prosecuted under repressive laws.American academic Paul Chambers was charged in April 2025 with royal defamation and violation of the Computer Crimes Act over a promotional blurb for an academic seminar in Singapore on Thailand’s annual police and military reshuffle. Charges against him were later dropped after he had abandoned his position at Naresuan University and fled the country.In May 2025, 15 activists from the community rights network People’s Movement for a Just Society (P-Move) were charged for allegedly violating a ban protests within 50m of Government House during protests in 2024 – 2025. In August 2025, three activists were charged with holding a public assembly without notifying the authorities after they held a protest against Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hliang’s participation at the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit in Bangkok on 5 April.On 5 September 2025, the Appeal Court overturned the acquittal of five activists and protesters accused of blocking Queen Suthida’s motorcade during a protest in October 2020. They were denied bail and remain in prison.At the end of 2025, 55 people remained in detention due to the exercise of their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly during large-scale protests between 2020 and 2022 calling for political reforms. Starting in July 2025, parliament began debating an amnesty bill for criminal offences related to political activities, but changes to Section 110 (violence or threat against the Queen or the Heir Apparent) and Section 112 (royal defamation) are not included.Meanwhile, human rights defenders and NGOs faced Information Operations meant to undermine their work and tarnish their reputations. According to a set of leaked documents disclosed by an opposition MP during a no-confidence debate in March 2025, the Thai police and military units jointly ran a “Cyber Team” targeting local and international NGOs and prominent activists.Concerns were also raised over online threats of violence against human rights defender and senator Angkhana Neelapaijit, who was threatened for warning of potential human rights violations resulting from the authorities’ management of the conflict along the Thailand-Cambodia border.The report also noted that in February 2025 the Thai authorities deported a group of 40 Uyghur refugees to China, where they face a risk of serious human rights violations, despite refoulement being prohibited under Thailand’s anti-torture law. And in November, the Thai authorities extradited Indigenous Montagnard activist and refugee Y Quynh Bdap to Vietnam, where he is at risk of torture and imprisonment.Local communities and civil society groups have also raised concerns about the lack of participation in the Land Bridge megaproject, which aims to connect shipping routes between the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea, as well as the ecological impact and the threats it poses to coastal communities such as the Indigenous Moken people whose livelihood relies on artisanal fishing.In August 2025, parliament passed the Protection and Promotion of the Way of Life of Ethnic Groups Act, lauded as the first law in Thailand to protect the cultural rights of ethnic minority groups. However, civil society and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights criticized its failure to include the term “indigenous” in the Act and because it did not reflect the principle of free, prior, and informed consent.The report also raised concerns about the rise of soil and groundwater salinity in Nakhon Ratchasima due to potash mining and arsenic contamination in the Kok River due to rare-earth and gold mining in Myanmar.Amnesty International welcomes the first landmark conviction under the anti-torture law, which came when two army and instructors and 11 conscripts were found guilty of beating to death 18-year-old army conscript Vorapach Padmasakul. It also welcomes the cabinet resolution permitting Myanmar refugees in camps to work legally in Thailand. Despite this progress, it remains concern about persistent and deepening human rights violations.To ensure the Thai government’s compliance with international human rights laws and standards, Amnesty International urges it to take steps to remedy human rights issues. It recommends that Thailand drop charges against individuals engaged in peaceful protests or expression and refrain from using laws to limit freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly. The Thai authorities should also repeal laws that have been used to suppress individuals exercising these freedoms, including the royal defamation law, the sedition law, criminal defamation law, the Computer Crimes Act, and the Public Assembly Act.Amnesty International calls for the release of political prisoners and for an end to harassment against human rights defenders.The Thai authorities should ensure that its refugee protection system is in line with international standards and halt all efforts to deport or extradite individuals to countries where they face a risk of torture, persecution, or other serious human rights violations.It should also ensure protection of Indigenous and community rights, including by formally recognizing “Indigenous peoples” status and ensuring that all large-scale infrastructure and development projects are subject to environmental and social impact assessments with the full participation of affected communities. Climate and environmental legislation must protect the most vulnerable groups, particularly women, Indigenous peoples, and children, and ensure their full and effective participation in related policy development.The deterioration in human rights protection in Thailand reported by Amnesty International comes against a background of global ‘economic and political domination through destruction, suppression and violence on a massive scale’. In a hard-hitting Preface, Secretary General Agnès Callamard speaks of ‘voracious predators’, such as Trump, Putin and Netanyahu, who ‘stalked through our global commons, hulking hunters plundering unjust trophies.’She warns that a ‘primitive ferocity’ has been unleashed against ‘the international order that had been imagined out of the ashes of the Holocaust and the utter destruction of world wars and constructed slowly and painfully over these past 80 years’. The report details that ‘in 2025 most governments opted for appeasement, including most European states’, most notably with respect to ‘the commissions of genocide and crimes against humanity’ and the ‘imposition of crippling sanctions against those working to deliver justice.
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Wed, 2026-04-29 - 18:10
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