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know your rights
By Roger Norwood
The declaration of a ‘state of
emergency’ this week for Bangkok
and surrounding areas by the
caretaker Cabinet in Thailand is not
something that is going to affect the
majority of people in Thailand, but
it did give me a reason to investigate
this measure.
Thailand, along with 166 other
states is a party to the International
Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR), which commits
its parties to respect the civil and
political rights of individuals,
including the right to life, freedom
of religion, freedom of speech,
freedom of assembly, electoral
rights and rights to due process and
a fair trial.
It also lays down that the rights can
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only be limited “in time of public
emergency which threatens the
life of the nation,”and even then
no derogation is permitted from
the rights to life, freedom from
torture and slavery, the freedom
from retrospective law, the right
to personhood, and freedom of
thought, conscience and religion.
Interestingly there are a number of
long running states of emergency,
most
notably
and
perhaps
surprisingly in the USA, one since
March 09, 1933, and the other since
September 11, 2001. Other perhaps
more understandable examples are
in Israel, Palestine, Japan and the
Phillipines, with the last two being
due to natural disasters, the more
common reason for such a measure.
The last time the UK declared this
was in 1974 as a response to long
running industrial action. in key
sectors of the economy.
One interesting aspect of the ICCPR
is that parties to it are supposed to
immediately contact the SecretaryGeneral of the United Nations to
declare the reason for the emergency,
the date on which the emergency is
to start, the derogations that may
take place, with the timeframe of the
emergency and the date in which the
emergency is expected to finish.
Given the increasing amount of
unrest in the world, i think Ban
Ki-moon might be a very busy man
receiving such declarations, but
lets hope it can assist Thailand to
become the peaceful haven it can
be once again.
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