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Writer's pictureManushya Foundation
Feb 7, 2022

Human rights violations in the Southern Border Provinces denounced by an international human rights











#FightRacism 🚨 The Thai government's efforts to control the armed conflict in the Southern Border Provinces (SBPs) gave rise to large-scale human rights violations and racially-charged policies affecting the local Malayu Muslim population. The separatist movement that emerged in the 1960s (the Barisan Revolusi Nasional) sought to carve out the Muslim-majority region as an independent state and more than 7,000 people have been killed since.

Read on to know more about this conflict and its consequences ⤵️


🛑 Indeed, Malayu Muslims in the Southern border provinces of Thailand are targeted by special security laws, which guarantee security officials' protection. This includes racial profiling, discriminatory and disproportionate biometric data collection through facial verification measures, and increased video surveillance. They were originally installed under the excuse of "ensuring local population's safety". But the process isn't overseen by any legal safeguards to protect against potential misuse of the data or violation of the right to privacy.


🚨 Moreover, children and women become the first victims of the conflict. Children of insurgents are being stigmatized at school, and some of them even drop out of school to help their families. As for Malayu women, they are sexually harassed and raped by soldiers, and their lawsuits often fall through.


📣 In November 2021, the CERD Committee held Thailand accountable for its human rights violations and treatment of marginalized communities. In the concluding observations of the CERD Committee, the following recommendations were made to Thailand:


👉 Combat the intersecting and multiple forms of discrimination faced by women from ethno-religious groups.

👉 Put an end to the practice of racial profiling.

👉 Eliminate the practices of mass and discriminatory collection and use of DNA samples, discriminatory use of facial recognition technology.


❌ The Government tries to save its face and avoid all responsibility for human rights violations, but it must implement these legally binding recommendations! The killings must stop! The authorities still continue to conduct house raids: 3 insurgents and 2 civilians died in April and May 2020.


#WeAreManushyan ♾️ Equal Human Beings


✊ We stand by marginalized communities facing human rights violations of the Thai government, and urge the authorities to find a compromise with the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) to find peace at the Southern border of Thailand!


Join us in our call!

👉 Like and share this post

👉 Learn more about the issue of armed conflict in the SBPs in our UPR Factsheet! Access here.

👉 Have you heard about racial profiling in the SBPs before? Tell us in the comments! ⤵️



🎨 Design by amazing Valentina Leoni



 

References:


Caleb Quinley, In Thailand’s deep south conflict, a ‘glimpse of hope’, but no momentum to sustain a COVID-19 ceasefire, (3 August 2020), available athttps://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2020/08/03/Thailand-deep-south-conflict-coronavirus-ceasefire


Don Pathan, Thailand: Could One of Asia’s Deadliest Conflicts Be Coming to an End?, (7 September 2021), available at: https://www.usip.org/publications/2021/09/thailand-could-one-asias-deadliest-conflicts-be-coming-end


Manushya Foundation, Armed Conflict & The Human Rights Situation in the Southern Border Provinces in Thailand: Joint Submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) for Thailand's Third UPR Cycle, 39th Session of the UPR Working Group, (16 April 2021), available at: https://www.manushyafoundation.org/joint-upr-submission-armedconflicts


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