The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) alleged that Thailand have consistently violated its prisoners’ right to health under international law, in a report submitted to the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health Monday.
Prior to her country visit to Thailand, the Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Tlaleng Mofokeng, called for input on the situation in the country. In its report, FIDH argued that Thai authorities have “consistently failed to respect, protect, and fulfil the right of prisoners and detainees to the ‘enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health,’” as protected under Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.
FIDH interviewed 53 former inmates and detainees held at 25 different prisons or detention centers around Thailand. The interviews revealed the Thai prison system failed to provide timely and quality healthcare services to prisoners. Most of the prisons that housed interviewees did not have on-site doctors or nurses, and the visits of these healthcare professionals were irregular. FIDH also found medicine was difficult to obtain, with paracetamol (the equivalent of Tylenol) being prescribed “for everything,” according to one interviewee.
Other concerns included the lack of specialized mental healthcare, slow response to medical emergencies, discrimination, abusive medical practices, lack of adequate gender-specific hygiene products, challenges for pregnant prisoners, and inadequate food and drinking water. Additionally, FIDH highlighted the exacerbation of these issues by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In immigration detention centers (IDC), detainees are forced to bear the costs of their treatment at hospitals outside the IDC. Between this and the inadequate care received in IDCs, there were at least nine detainee deaths in IDCs from 2014 to 2024. Among them were two Uyghur detainees who died of pneumonia and liver failure, as well as a three-year-old boy.
FIDH called on the Special Rapporteur to urge the Thai government to address overcrowding issues, improve conditions to meet the country’s international obligations for prisoner treatment, ensure prisons have clean air and quality food, and many other recommendations.
Known as the Nelson Mandela Rules, the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners represents the general international consensus on the essential elements of prison management to respect the basic human rights of prisoners. In particular, rules 24-35 require states to provide free and prompt access to healthcare services that are equally available in the community. The Bangkok Rules provide further guidelines for the protection of women prisoners.
The Special Rapporteur is set to visit Thailand from February 18 to 28 this year.
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