Press release
Guideline to Promote Access to Justice for the Muslim Women in the Thailand's
Southernmost Provinces

21 April, 2015, the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRCT), in association with the Sheikhul Islam Office, the Institute of Religion, Culture and Peace from Payap University, the Foundation for Women, the Justice for Peace Foundation, the Faculty of Political Science from Prince of Songkla University Pattani Campus, UN WOMEN and DFATD, Canada, organized the seminar on Guideline to Promote Access to Justice for the Muslim Women in the Thailand's Southernmost Provinces. The seminar was at 8.30 – 13.00 in the Kamolthip 1 room, the Sukosol Hotel, Pathumwan district, Bangkok aimed to present the problematic situation and challenges for the Muslim women to access the justice in the southernmost provinces of Thailand; to apply human rights principle for the Islam related to women and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women so that Muslim women could access for justice in the southernmost provinces of Thailand; and to brainstorm the opinions and recommendations from the State sector and all sectoral networks in order to develop the Practice to Promote Access to Justice for the Muslim Women in the Thailand's Southernmost Provinces.

Prof. Dr. Amara Pongsapich, Chairperson of the NHRCT, had an opening speech that “the Muslim women issue is sensitive and the tendency of discrimination against the women in the family is high. Understanding the all forms of violence against the women and the complexity of the challenges will help us addressing the problem. Based on the experienced working with the sheikh in the Muslim communities located at the southernmost provinces of Thailand, I have found that it is needed to question the relevant stakeholders about unfair treatment. I hope questioning with the sheikh in relation to guideline or religious interpretation so that we could seek the answer about the existing discrimination and the development toward justice access. In addition, the NHRCT has appointed the Sub-Committee on Strategic Human Rights Operation in the Southernmost Provinces of Thailand. The Sub-Committee is responsible for following up the progress of the practice that is focused on human rights promotion and protection toward justice access for the Muslim women in the southernmost border of Thailand”.

Moreover, the NHRCT and the network have also been aware of the situation of the Muslim women in the southernmost provinces facing various forms of violence in the family and community. As a result, there has been a project launched to promote access of justice and to protect human rights for the Muslim women in the southernmost provinces. This is aimed to raise awareness about the rights of the Muslim women to the Muslim women organizations, religious organizations and relevant officials. There was a workshop for the human rights coordinators in the southernmost provinces of Thailand and the officials from the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Center and the 2 generations from Muslim women organization and network at Pattani province on December 2014. The workshop was to provide knowledge and views on human rights to the 2 target groups. For examples, knowledge on violence situation against the Muslim women in Thailand due to the gender prejudice, Thai laws on women protection from violence, positive view of the Islam in rights protection for women, international standards for women rights protection and collaboration of the Islam countries on women. The attendants of the workshop who were the representatives from the Muslim women organization jointly concluded the practical recommendations for promotion of access of justice for the Muslim women in the southernmost provinces of Thailand.

On February, 2015, there was a meeting on access of justice for the Muslim women in the southernmost provinces of Thailand where the attendants were totally 157 persons at Pattani province in order to understand the human rights protection for the Muslim women in the southernmost provinces of Thailand. Such meeting was similar to the abovementioned workshop presenting the women stories who called for justice and elimination of violence from the family, community and officials. The attendants had a chance to discuss about the recommendations from the first workshop; to mobilize the additional ideas; and to synthesize the recommendations to address the said violence against the women through the justice mechanism at all levels.

After that, the NHRCT has launched the other workshops to draft the practice to promote access of justice for the Muslim women in the southernmost provinces of Thailand at Pattani province on February 2015. There were attendants from the multidisciplinary organizations and government agencies in the South. Apart from the knowledge gained from the workshop, the attendants jointly prepared and made the practical recommendations for human rights protection and promotion of access of justice for the Muslim women in the southernmost provinces of Thailand.

In addition, the NHRCT and the network strongly expected that this Practice to Promote Access to Justice for the Muslim Women in the Thailand's Southernmost Provinces would be integrated for rights promotion of the Muslim women in the southernmost province of Thailand so that the rights in judicial process could be truly accessible.

 The Office of National Human Rights Commission
21 April, 2015
 

21/04/2015