Journal of Human Rights and Peace Studies

Charting History: The Influence of Malay Muslim Elites in Political Mobilization and the Democratic Movement in Thailand's Deep South

Daungyewa Utarasint — Sun, 30 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0700

This article presents the changes of Thai national political history over the past century and their impact on the political landscape in Thailand's three southernmost provinces. The objective is to illustrate the political connections between these provinces and the center. Studying these connections will enhance and enlarge our understanding of the conflicts in Thailand's Deep South. Although elections were held occasionally in Thailand between the 1950s and 1980s, more than half were corrupted by military rulers’ abuses of power, not only abusing electoral processes, but also intimidating those representatives from the Deep South whom they perceived as a potential threat to national security. Many prominent Malay Muslim representatives, such as Haji Sulong, Haji Ameen, and Siddik Sharif, who were highly respected by their electorates, were often seen as separatists’ intent on undermining and destabilizing the Thai government. This article suggests that the frequent military coups in Bangkok fomented conflict in the Deep South. It also examines Malay Muslim political candidates and their election campaigns under military rule, particularly their methods of managing campaigns to circumvent conflicts.

This article argues that within a dominant nationalistic Thai state, individuals acting in isolation face immense challenges; protest alone cannot succeed. Even if solo actors represent broader perspectives or larger movements, their visibility makes them easier targets for governmental surveillance and action.

Rights Protection for Returned Human Trafficking Victims: A Case Study of Lao Cai Province

Phan Thanh Thanh — Sun, 30 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0700

The paper aims to evaluate if and how the rights of human trafficking victims have been protected in Lao Cai Province, Vietnam. The article will analyze some issues of rights protection for the returned victims of trafficking in Lao Cai from 2013 to 2023. The key concepts of this article are the right to protection and the right to enjoy support regimes for human trafficking victims. The study includes (1) analyzing documents, including policy and legal documents on human trafficking prevention law and Vietnam's policies on victim protection and support, (2) interviews with five experts who are officials in charge of human trafficking prevention at competent agencies to evaluate the current local law enforcement situation. and (3) in-depth interviews with 10 victims of trafficking in the province to find out how their right to protection and their right to enjoy support regimes have been protected during the process of returning to their communities. Although there have been legal improvements and ratifications at the regional and national levels against human trafficking and to protect trafficking victims, gaps appear in the implementation process. The research shows that in terms of receiving and supporting the victims, local government resources, including funding, physical facilities, and specialized staff, are still limited and relying heavily on the funds/resources of NGOs. Many victims still live in unsafe social environments after being trafficked. These issues suggest that allocating adequate resources (finance, capacity of protection agencies and staff) and coordination among different agencies need to be addressed.

Human Rights Challenges of Irregular Migrant Laborers’ Dependent Children in Thailand’s Construction Sectors: An Empirical Analysis

MST UMME HABIBA FAHMINA KARIM — Sun, 30 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0700

Despite being a vital component of economic growth, irregular migrant laborers staying with their children on construction sites in Thailand face various challenges. Irregular migrant workers face discrimination in wages, inadequate documentation, and limited access to basic rights, and their children are not covered by public services guaranteed in the Thai national legal framework for migrant laborers. The children, or dependants of the irregular migrant workers in this sector, face difficulties accessing fundamental rights. Through the conceptual framework of irregular migrants together with the complex definition of dependent children of migrant workers, this documentary research analyses the basic protection deficits, risks, and needs of migrant workers’ dependent children in the construction sector in Thailand. The study found that their identity as 'children' is largely ignored due to their parents' identity as migrant workers or irregular migrants. Therefore, migrant workers’ dependants or children in Thailand's construction projects are deprived of their fundamental human rights, such as education, healthcare, and protection. The study’s findings provide insights into both academic research and policy analysis in the field of migrant worker management by highlighting the human rights deprivation of children as the key dependents of migrant workers, which affects the productivity of migrant workers and indicates the lack of efficacy of the Thai government’s labor migrant policies. The study recommends weighing migrant workers’ voices in the design of labor migration programs, broader consultation among migrant workers, employers, and government officials, and policy review to allow children of migrant workers to access fundamental human rights.

We Have Changed, Have You Changed Yourself Yet? Global Political Philosophy in the Political Movement of Thai Youth and Thai State, 2020-2023

Phao Nawakul — Sun, 30 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0700

Scholars in global political philosophy have seen changes in citizens all over the world to transnational activities. All phenomena lead to a change to a new framework of political philosophy based not on nation-states but on concepts of globalization or internationalization. This article exemplifies this change by revealing that the political movements of Thai youth between 2020-2023 were based on “universal moral values” like those in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: freedom of speech and freedom from fear, protection by the rule of law, and the axiom that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. The article also tries to demonstrate that the Thai state cannot adapt. Imprisonment has been used as a tool for resisting changes, especially those expressed through general elections. This has resulted in a cross-party coalition government formation and the impending dissolution of the most popular political party.

Academic views on Peace Talk Promotion in the Southern Border Provinces

abdunrohman mukem — Sun, 30 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0700

This research article aims to understand the views of academics in support of peace talks in the Southern border provinces through in-depth interviews and field notes from 9 Thai researchers on the conflict and its resolution. This research, conducted from 1 May to 30 September 2020 involved 4 outsiders in, 2 insiders in, 2 insiders out, and 1 outsider out. A typology and taxonomy of the collected data, is followed by analysis, description, and explanation of the findings.Research Finding: an environment conducive for peace talks represents an initial step towards achieving peace. Experts advise 7 critical strategies for effective action, including attentive listening to all people's comments, cultivating a positive narrative through peace-oriented information, fostering unity across diverse faiths, conducting unbiased and sincere conflict resolution efforts, supporting civil society and ensuring freedom of peace-promoting spaces, refraining from undue interference with the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre, and avoiding stereotyping and unjust arrests. 7 ongoing strategies are: enhancing the quality of life for the populace, advancing the dualistic educational system, serving

Exploring Civil Disobedience Movement of Civilians in Thailand 2020-2021: Context, Conflict and Nonviolent Action

Saw Franklin Aye — Sun, 30 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0700

This study explores the civil disobedience movement of civilians in Thailand from 2020 to 2021, a critical period in Thailand's recent history marked by widespread civil disobedience and political unrest. This period is pivotal for research due to its significant implications. Beyond addressing the contextual and conflictual aspects, the research examines nonviolent action by identifying its types and methods and categorizing them within an applied framework. Using qualitative methodology, the study gathered primary and secondary data for analysis. The theoretical framework was applied flexibly, allowing for a nuanced examination and integration of the data into the established framework. Consequently, five types and thirteen methods were identified within three overarching categories of nonviolent action - protest and persuasion, noncooperation, and intervention. Five types comprised protests and demonstrations, online activism and campaigns, general strikes, the occupation of public spaces, and persuasion. Then, methods were marches on public thoroughfares, signs, slogans and demands, speeches, artwork, symbolic acts of resistance, the dissemination of information about the movement, forming networks and alliances, boycotts, political demands as part of strikes, disrupting and disobeying normal societal functions, drawing attention, and blocking public spaces through public rallies. The arguments in the study that the 2020-2021 Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) of civilians in Thailand was not only a nonviolent action but also involved violent behavior and that the nonviolent CDM failed due to unmet political demands were conclusively validated.

Māori Self-Determination: A Case Study Analysis of Indigenising Self-Determination for Tapuika in Aotearoa

Isaac Aesili Mcneill — Sun, 30 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0700

This study investigates the views, values, and aspirations of Tapuika iwi (tribe) as a case study to understand if the Western concept of self-determination is compatible with the Māori worldview and how it may be indigenised for Tapuika. Fusing Kaupapa Māori (Māori approach) with Western social science methodologies (phenomenology and grounded theory), this paper investigates the collective right to Indigenous self-determination and its cultural, political and economic forms alongside Māori customary law, including the political aspirations of Tapuika participants collected between 2022 and 2024 in a series of interviews and focus group discussions. The study finds that the Indigenous right to self-determination is compatible with rangatiratanga (Māori self-determination) and tino rangatiratanga (Māori sovereignty) but requires decolonisation so that shared sovereignty is balanced with the State. Indigenous self-determination and rangatiratanga are both vital for Tapuika, but institutionalised racism in the treatment of Indigenous peoples in international and domestic law and the barriers posed by mono-legalistic hierarchies of rights are significant issues that call for political and sociocultural change. The paper concludes that constitutional transformation and reparatory justice are required for Tapuika to fully and effectively enjoy Indigenous self-determination and rangatiratanga.