“We’ve laid a foundation”?
Interview with NHRC chairman Prof. Saneh Chamarik published in Bangkok Post, July 13, 2007
Outgoing National Human Rights Commission chairman Saneh Chamarik discusses the commission’s successes and failures over the past six years and the challenges ahead with Kultida Samabuddhi.
How do you grade the NHRC’s performance?
I’m only 50% satisfied. I wish we could do better on human rights education and creation of a human rights-awareness culture in our society.
We’ve spent a lot of time investigating, writing reports and making recommendations to the government. But we’ve failed to educate the public about human rights. This is partly because we have so few staff.
What are the successes?
Our success can’t be judged from the number of cases we investigated or the outcome. Our mission is more about creating social change, which sometimes can’t be measured. I am confident our society has become more aware of human rights protection.
I think we’ve done a good job in laying the foundation for human rights protection and investigation of abuses.
We’ve set up an inquiry procedure and a strong network of villagers and local administrators to monitor human rights abuse.
We’ve also created public awareness of the community’s right to manage natural resources. That is, in fact, not regarded as a human right at the international level.
Considering the scope of our work, I can say that Thailand’s first national human rights commission has been more progressive than in other countries.
What are the major problems?
Government negligence in not taking into consideration our reports and recommendations is the biggest problem. We investigated over 3,000 cases, but the Thaksin government took only one for consideration, the Thai-Malaysian gas pipeline, and sent it to parliament.
It was very discouraging during our first three years in office as the government did not even inform us if they received our reports. Only in the last three years did they bother to tell us that the document had reached the prime minister’s office.
What is the most significant case your commission has worked on?
The Thai-Malaysian gas pipeline. The commission looked into the violent police crackdown on the project’s opponents in Hat Yai in 2002. This is the only case that was discussed in parliament, although it took over a year to reach there.
Parliament, however, did not reach any resolution and later asked the Constitution Court to consider the legitimacy of the NHRC’s investigation. The judges ruled that we have the authority and this was a milestone in our work.
The commission’s inquiry in this case was used by the project’s opponents to back their complaint of police use of excessive force, and the Songkhla Provincial Court accepted the case for trial.
What can we do about the government’s ignorance of the commission’s recommendations?
Public pressure is a key to make the government do or not to do something. Therefore, we must strengthen civil movements and encourage the people to pressure the government to respond to the NHRC’s recommendations.
How can you cope with criticism that the NHRC sides with NGOs and villagers?
I don’t care about being labelled “NGO” because we know what we are doing. We investigate the cases professionally. It is true that the NHRC has worked closely with the NGOs in its investigations, but when it comes to the conclusions of an inquiry we use our own judgement.
In six years you have dealt with thousands of human rights abuse complaints. How do you feel about that?
I feel very moved by every case I work on. There were many cases where the complainants or community leaders were killed while we were investigating. Sometimes a conflict becomes more serious after the affected people lodge a complaint with the NHRC. I feel guilty that I can’t protect their lives.
What are your suggestions for the new commissioners?
The new commission should consist of specialists in various fields. The commissioners should share their knowledge and opinions with each other. One of the problems I came across during my tenure is that each commissioner chose to work only within their fields of interest. This means our work lacks dimension and well-round information.
The NHRC has built a human rights road for our successors to follow. I hope the next commission will carefully consider what we’ve created, and if they find anything that is outworn or impractical they can just drop it.
But who will they be………………………?
Tags: Bangkok Post, Saneh Chamarik
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