National Human Rights Commission to remain Grade B for next 18 months
The National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRC) will remain in Grade B for the next 18 months because the current constitution deprives them of independence and obliges them to speak in defence of the government, says the Sub-Committee on Accredition (SCA).
Its rank was lowered from Grade A in 2016 because of the non-participatory process of selecting the commissioners, delayed responses to violations, lack of autonomy, and inefficiency in delivering support and relief to the victims of human rights violations.
The Sub-Committee on Accreditation (SCA) belongs to the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI), which has the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) as permanent observer and secretariat. The SCA’s key mission is to review and accredit national human rights institutions in terms of their compliance with the Paris Principles.
According to a press release by the NHRC on 22 January, Acting Chairperson of the NHRC Prakairatana Thontiravong said that they had requested an assessment to recover the original ranking in June 2018. They had a distant interview with the SCA on 8 December 2020.
Prachatai
