Our stakeholder report to Thailand’s Universal Periodic Review, led by Professor Jon Yorke, makes specific recommendations to the government to abolish the death penalty.
Researchers
Consultancy background
In March 2021, the UPR Project at BCU submitted a report to Thailand’s third cycle UPR, focusing on capital punishment. We make specific recommendations to the government of Thailand calling for the initiation of an official moratorium on the death penalty, as a step towards domestic de jure abolition of the punishment.
Download the stakeholder report
On the 13 August 2021 the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights cited the UPR Project at BCU’s Stakeholder Report on Thailand:
Right to life, liberty and security of person
AI and JS21 noted that courts continued to hand down death sentences for murder and drug-related crimes. JS34 also noted the most recent execution by lethal injection in June 2018, which reversed a de facto moratorium in place since 2009. JS21 recommended establishing a moratorium on executions, commuting all death sentences to prison terms and abolishing the death penalty for all crimes. Similarly, UPR Project at BCU recommended that Thailand adopt an official moratorium on the death penalty and amend national legislation to abolish the punishment in all circumstances. (para 16)
There was one paragraph on the death penalty within the Summary of Stakeholders’ submissions on Thailand.
The outcome of the review was published on 21 December 2021 in the Report of the Working Group. The report stated that the Member State recommendations on the abolition of the death penalty ‘will be examined [and Thailand] will examine the following recommendations and provide responses in due time, but no later than the forty-ninth session of the Human Rights Council. Thailand has supported recommendations relating to the abolition of the death penalty.
- Continue to review and discuss the relevance of the death penalty to Thailand, with a view to considering the imposition of a moratorium on the death penalty and its complete abolition (Recommending states: Fiji (51.65); New Zealand (51.66); Romania (51.67); Slovakia (51.68); Timor-Leste (51.69); Croatia (51.71)
- Take steps towards the abolition of the death penalty, such as considering joining the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty (Recommending state: Brazil (51.70)
- Ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty (Recommending states: Mongolia (52.1); Argentina, Armenia, Mexico & Slovenia (52.2); Iceland (52.32); Uruguay (52.35); Portugal (52.34); Latvia (52.38); Australia (52.42)
- Abolish the death penalty (Recommending states: Estonia (52.33); Belgium (52.35)
- Establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty (Recommending states: France, Ireland & Costa Rica (52.37); Madagascar (52.39); Argentina (52.41); Italy (52.43); Cyprus (52
These Member State recommendations are consistent with the categories of recommendations identified in the UPR Project at BCU’s Stakeholder Report for Thailand’s UPR.
About the UPR Project at BCU
The Centre for Human Rights (CHR) has been engaging with the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) since 2016. Under the auspice of the Human Rights Council, the UPR is an intergovernmental process providing a review of the human rights record of all Member States.
Through the UPR Project at BCU, the CHR we engage with the UPR through taking part in the UPR Pre-sessions, providing capacity building for UPR stakeholders and National Human Rights Institutions, and the filing of stakeholder reports in selected sessions. The UPR Project is designed to help meet the challenges facing the safeguarding of human rights around the world, and to help ensure that UPR recommendations are translated into domestic legal change in member state parliaments.
We fully support the UPR ethos of encouraging the sharing of best practice globally to protect everyone's human rights.The UPR Project at BCU engages with the UPR regularly as a stakeholder, having submitted numerous reports and been cited by the OHCHR.