Call for new charter to protect rights
Rights groups yesterday pushed for human-rights protections afforded in the 1997 Constitution not to be eroded in a new charter.
Several rights organisations - led by the Union for Civil Liberty and the Coordinating Committee of Human Rights Organisations in Thailand - pressed for the same protection of freedoms stipulated by the suspended 1997 Constitution.They said the charter clearly guaranteed human rights and afforded public participation in the checks and balances of the government and state. Other groups that joined in the call on International Human Rights Day yesterday were Amnesty International Thailand, the Assembly of the Poor and the Thai Journalists' Association. ' People's Rights and Liberty Association member Pairot Polpet said rights organisations had ranked progress and repression of rights. Included in the top-10 rights progressions was the judicial ruling for compensation payments to be made to Thailand-Malaysia gas pipeline protesters in 2002. That was followed by the judicial ruling against the stock-market listing of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand and taxi driver Nuamthong Praiwal taking his own life in protest against the September 19 coup. Topping the list of rights repression were the Thaksin Shinawatra government's attacks on media freedom and the right to protest. It was followed by the September 19 coup, the crackdown on broadcast and electronic media by the then Council for Democratic Reform, and violence in the South. The groups will submit their call for guarantees of charter rights to the Council for National Security. They will also call for swift elections. Campaign for Popular Media Reform secretary-general Supinya Klangnarong said the suspension of the Constitution had taken rights guarantees away from the people. Those protesting for rights guarantees are threatened, according to activist Methi Maskhao. The Nation
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