PETITION by - Paul Hunt
Petition on Behalf of Hilltribe Prisoners in Thailand - 16th June 2004
1. We consider that the severe erosion of economic, social and cultural rights of the indigenous hilltribe minorities in Thailand directly causes their dire poverty, endangers their livelihood and severely curtails their freedom of choices and opportunities. Hilltribe peoples are thus weakened, by the failure of state policies and officials to protect these peoples' rights, to the scourges of drugs use, trafficking, prostitution and other desperate measures to survive in their adverse conditions. We call on the Thai government to reconsider its discriminative, restrictive policies towards ethnic hilltribe minorities in Thailand.
2. We consider the lack of effective hilltribe representation in Thai policy making, and the denial of, or bribes demanded for, identity papers, which are essential for travel and other activities, are forms of racial discrimination. We call on Thai government officials to be more considerate of how official policies affect hilltribe minorities, and how imprisonment exacerbates the impoverishment of families and communities.
3. We consider that hilltribe prisoners should be located as near to their homelands and families as possible due to the dependency of prisoners in Thailand on outside support even for such basic necessities as decent food, adequate clothes, soap and medicines. Poverty and lack of identity papers prevent relatives from visiting prisoners in distant prisons, such as those in or near Bangkok. We call on officials at the Department of Corrections to urgently address this problem.
4. We consider that prison administrations have a duty to ensure prisoners are provided with basic necessities, such as nutritious food, clean clothes, soap, medicines and adequate bedding. We call on prison officials not to require prisoners to buy such essential items, or coerce relatives, friends or charity workers into buying them or supplying them to prison officials. This practice adds to the impoverishment of hilltribe people.
5. We consider that any work done by prisoners should be fairly rewarded and not done under duress. We call on prison officials to refrain from exploiting prisoners for personal gain.
6. We consider that the physical abuse, humiliation and exploitation of prisoners is unacceptable. We call for all deaths, injuries and sickness in Thai prisons to be thoroughly investigated and truthfully reported by competent, independent, medical authorities.
7. We consider that the chronically overcrowded prison conditions in Thailand are detrimental to prisoners' health and well-being. We call for honest reappraisals of social policies, which appear to be failing, as burgeoning prisoner numbers, and particularly the disproportionately large numbers of hilltribe prisoners in Thai institutions, indicate.
8. We consider that the death penalty is ineffective as a deterrent. Impoverished, disenfranchised hilltribe minorities have little to live for in a state which discriminates against and severely restricts them. Use of the death penalty in the past has not seen any decrease at all in drugs trafficking or crime generally in Thailand, but rather a phenomenal increase. We call for the withdrawal of the death penalty as a first step towards a wiser, more resourceful policy that gives due consideration to the rights of Thailand's ethnic hilltribe minorities to live peacefully and securely in their homelands.
*************************************************
Copies were sent to:
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
The United Nations
All human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated. The international community must treat human rights globally in a fair and equal manner, on the same footing, and with the same emphasis. While the significance of national and regional particularities and various historical, cultural and religious backgrounds must be borne in mind, it is the duty of States, regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems, to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms.
--- back to the pen-pal index