Associate Professor Pantip Kanchanachitra of Thammasat University said the Mae Sot municipal office had refused to issue a "birth certificate" to the daughter of a Lisu woman named Rayong Aphisakulphaisal.

He said "Phrae" has a hospital document certifying that she was born in Mae Sot but officials refused to recognise her as Thai, reasoning that Chiang Rai's Mae Chan district has had a restriction put on her mother's identity card number since 1996.

The girl's right to citizenship is protected by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1996, which Thailand ratified in January 1997, he said.

According to Article 24 of the treaty, every child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have be given a name.

But Phrae's rejection by Mae Sot has made her stateless and will create more problems when she grows up. Authorities should attend to the problem seriously, as they are not only violating Thai laws but also international law, the professor said.

Article 24 also states that every child shall have - without any discrimination as to race, colour, sex, language, religion, national or social origin, property or birth - the right to such measures of protection as are required by his status as a minor, on the part of his family, society and the state.

The baby's mother has found herself in the same predicament that villagers in Chiang Mai's Mae Ai district had in the past, Pantip said.

The Mae Aye villagers were members of ethnic minorities who had their Thai identity cards cancelled. But on appeal the Supreme Administrative Court last August ordered the restoration of their citizenship on grounds that no laws allowed authorities to revoke their household registration before completing the process to prove "nationality".