Legal measures to restrain political gatherings

Sittipat Chalermyot

Abstract

The cause of political gatherings was found to be an important cause of changes in government and changes in leadership at the national level such as a coup Opposition to the succession of power by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), protests to oust government leaders. The problem of law enforcement on public assemblies in Thailand is linked to many laws, from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the 2017 Constitution, the 2015 Public Assembly Act, Emergency Decree of 2005, Criminal Code and Traffic Act, etc. Therefore, the author has proposed legal measures to prevent political gatherings. There should be measures, by not using violent methods to disperse protesters who are children and youth under 17 years of age, treating the protesters as service users without committing violent acts and do not use weapons to disperse or things that cause injury to protesters, but if the protesters cause violence, measures should be taken to disperse the protest by creating a barrier to prevent access to the place and the officials. The officials and citizens should not be allowed to directly clash with each other. The laws regarding the Constitution of 2017, the Public Assembly Act of 2015, and the laws regarding mass media and news presentation shall be applied. It should be presented in a neutral format without causing provocation and do not include news content that causes choosing sides or choosing sides. Government push for the law to control gatherings to be truly raised to international standards and police officers in every area must control events equally and equitably without discrimination.