Statement

Stop proceedings of Mr. Anon Nampha and Mr. Phanuphong Jardnork,

and protect peaceful and unarmed assembly

                    A political assembly of the Liberation Youth Group on July 18, 2020, in Bangkok with three-point demands to the government to stop threatening people who come out to express their rights and liberty according to democratic principle, draft a new constitution based on the people’s will, and dissolve the parliament, led to other assemblies that continuously took place in many education institutes and public places in the provinces around Thailand to support those demands.

            Students and the people involved in the assemblies, however, were threatened and harassed both openly and secretly by military personnel, police officers, teachers/lecturers and administrators of concerned education institutes.  On August 7, 2020, police officers restrained Mr. Anon Nampha, a lawyer from the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, and Mr. Phanuphong Jardnork, a leader of the Eastern Youth for Democracy according to an arrest warrant of Samranrat Police Station with eight charges specified including encouraging provocative actions according to Section 116 of the Criminal Code and assembling ten people or more according to Section 215 of the Criminal Code because they were leaders who organized assembly around Monument of Democracy on July 18, 2020.

            Union for Civil Liberty (UCL) sees that organizing an assembly to demand the government to stop threatening the people, dissolve the parliament and amend the Constitution is a right of the people to participate in the democratic governmental regime and is a democratic expression because they express their freedom of peaceful and unarmed assembly recognized in Section 45 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand B.E.2560 (2017) that officials of the state and government have a duty to protect and safeguard.  In addition, the Thai government must comply to the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) of which Thailand is a state party.

            Union for Civil Liberty therefore demands the government and its related agencies to take the following actions:

1. The government immediately release Mr. Anon Nampha and Mr. Phanuplong Jardnork.
2. The Prime Minister on behalf of the government controls security officials and administrators of education institutes where students organize assemblies not to derogate their right and liberty of peaceful and unarmed assembly; if any state officials or other persons take any action to threaten or harass right and liberty of students or people in the assemblies, they must be punished.
3. The government must clearly express their standpoint to respect expression of the people by adhering to the principle of rights and liberty according to the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand B.E. 2560 (2017) and the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, building a trust that leaders and people taking part in the assembly would not have their privacy threatened by state officials, be arrested, tortured or forced to disappear. If any of these situations occurred, the government must take responsibility and punish wrongdoers in all cases.
4. The Prime Minister goes to personally listen and accept the demands made by various groups in their assemblies and speed up the process to have the whole Constitution rewritten by a Constitution Drafting Assembly of which its members are directly elected by the people to create reconciliation among various people and complete democracy.

Union for Civil Liberty

8^th August 2020