Development of Environmental Human Rights in Thai Constitutions 1932 – 2017 -
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Abstract
This study explores the emergence and development of environmental human rights in the Thai constitutions between 1932 and 2017 through documentary research and text analysis of the 20 constitutions Thailand has had since 1932. For this study, environmental human rights do not include rights of the environment but include both substantive and procedural forms of human rights related to environmental protection. The study's result shows that before the 1974 Constitution, environmental human rights existed incidentally as part of other rights afforded to the citizens of Thailand. Texts related directly to environmental protection first appeared in the 1974 Constitution. The most extensive development of the procedural environmental rights occurred in the 1997 Constitution. Afterwards, no substantive rights have been included. The study points out that Thailand has no constitution that unambiguously recognizes substantive environmental human rights. It should be noted that the scope of this study does not include the implementation of constitutional text and, therefore, does not preclude the possibility that substantive rights could be interpreted from the text in actual legal practices.
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