Thailand: behind the wall, a look at conditions in Thailand’s prisons after the coup

Thailand’s prison population has steadily increased over the years and the country has the dubious distinction of having the largest prison population and the highest incarceration rate among Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states. For more than a decade, United Nations (UN) human rights mechanisms have expressed concern over prison conditions in Thailand. Regrettably, successive Thai governments have failed to make any progress in the implementation of the UN’s recommendations and to uphold their own commitments to improve prison conditions. In addition, since the 2014 military coup, Thailand’s junta has enforced measures that have caused conditions in the prisons to deteriorate. The junta also increased the use of military facilities to detain civilians.

As documented in this report, Thailand’s ongoing failure to enact a comprehensive prison reform has created conditions for human rights violations to be rife in its prison system in breach of the country’s obligations under international instruments to which it is a state party.

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