News Release
on the use of restraints to the 7 students of the New Democracy Movement (NDM) group
on 5 July 2016

Following the incident that the Corrections Department officials used the ankle cuffs as restraints on the 7 students from the New Democracy Movement (NDM) group, who are prior detained to the Bangkok Military Court order, namely, Mr. Rangsiman Rome, Mr. Nunthapong Panmas, Mr. Korakoch Saengyenphan, Mr. Somsakul Thongsuksai, Mr. Anan Loket, Mr. Teerayut Nakhananram and Mr. Yuthana Dasri, in order to transfer them from the Bangkok Remand Prison to the Bangkok Military Court to proceed the filing for the extension of detainment on 5 July 2016. The use of restraints was rather reported widely by the media as irons, and caused concerns whether this case would violate the human dignities and the rights and liberties of body, which may have resulted in the human rights violations to the students detained.

The National Human Rights Commission of Thailand has investigated and taken this case into consideration at the meeting no. 25/2559 on 9 August 2016 and viewed that the 7 student detainees were arrested due to the contravention to the order no.3/2558 of the Head of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), which restricted political gatherings of 5 members or more without consent, and also due to causing chaos to prevent the orderly arrangements of the referendum, in accordance to the Referendum of Draft Constitution Act B.E. 2559 since the students conducted activities to disseminate campaign materials to reject the referendum of the draft constitution and refused the order of state officials to have their fingers printed as well as incapable to have their identifications verified by the officials. In such case, ankle cuffs may not be used since this was not considered as serious offense. The use of such ankle cuffs as restraints violated the rights and liberties of individual’s body, were not legitimated and thus resulted in human rights violation. The transfer of 7 student detainees from the Bangkok Remand Prison to the Bangkok Military Court on 5 July 2016 which resulted in the display of ankle cuffs to the general public and the world violated human dignities, and thus resulted in another human rights violation. In both cases, it is in accordance with the Interim Constitution of Thailand B.E. 2557 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) provisions. NHRCT therefore suggests that corrective measures and recommendations be proposed to the concerned entities.

 The National Human Rights Commission of Thailand
9 August 2016 

09/08/2016