An international panel evaluating world human rights organisations has recommended the downgrading of the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRC).
The National Human Rights Commission of Thailand faces downgrading forit failure to speedily address serious human rights violations. (Photo by Pattanapong Chatpattarasill)
The recommendation was made by the sub-committee on accreditation (SCA) of the International Coordinating Committee on National Human Rights Institutions (ICC).
It has proposed that the NHRC be bumped down from A to B status, and given several reasons for its recommendation.
Pokpong Lawansiri, human rights officer of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Wednesday that the sub-committee reported that the selection of people to sit on the NHRC was not diversified and lacked the participation of the civil sector.
The NHRC also failed to address serious human rights violations in a timely manner.
The SCA reported that the NHRC took three years to complete and publish a report into alleged human rights violations in 2010, and had yet to produce a report on the incidents in 2013, Mr Pokpong said.
The SCA also doubted the independence of the NHRC, commenting that the staff expressed their political views while on duty.
The NHRC had one year to improve it performance and if it failed to do so its status would be downgraded from A to B, Mr Pokpong said.
If reduced to B status, the NHRC would be unable to express its opinions or present written documents to the United Nations Human Rights Council on the human right situation in Thailand at the council's meeting in 2016, he said.
The NHRC would become only an observer at regional and international human rights conferences such as the Asia Pacific Forum on National Human Rights Institutions.
In addition, the NHRC would be barred from voting at meetings of the ICC and from applying to be in a committee or sub-committee of the ICC, Mr Pokpong said.