Review of laws and policies in Thailand

Publications

Review of laws and policies in Thailand

19 February 2014

HIV prevalence amongst people who inject drugs has been consistently increasing in Thailand. High levels of prevalence can be attributed to unprotected sex and intravenous drug use, and occurs amongst vulnerable populations such as sex workers, migrant workers and men who have sex with men (MSM). These vulnerable groups are also prone to other blood-borne diseases such as hepatitis A, B and C.

The report reviews all major principles and human rights standards related to people who use drugs and people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) including equal, non-discriminatory treatment, the protection of human dignity, the right to justice processes, the right to health, HIV prevention, treatment and care, and the right to treatment.

Based on the experience of networks of people who use drugs, concerned NGOs, the Independent Inquiry Committee’s report on the monitoring, study and analysis of the development of drug control policy and its implementation, causing harm to people’s life, health, reputation and property, and the reports of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) investigating human rights violations, we initially found that drug control policies which seek to achieve rapid and quantitative results tend to lead to human rights violations. These policies tend to rely on the application of specific laws that emphasize seizures and arrests as successes.

In Thailand, the implementation of policies in the field of drug prevention, supply reduction, and treatment and rehabilitation has been found to be problematic. However, laws and policy can have a negative or a positive impact on the implementation of human rights principles and harm reduction measures.

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