Considerations for the Restriction of People's Rights: The Draft Act on the Operation of Non-Profit Organizations B.E. ….
Keywords:
freedom of association, non-profit organization, civil society, the restriction of rightsAbstract
The Cabinet has approved two drafts of the law on non-profit organizations to conduct a hearing and analyze the impact of the draft law under Section 77 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand, B.E. 2560 (2017). The first one is the Draft Act on the Operation of Non-Revenue Organizations or profits to share which the cabinet
passed a resolution on February 23, 2021, which was proposed by the Office of the Council of State. Subsequently, the Office of the Council of State revised the draft law. A draft law on non-profit organizations was proposed as a second one. The Cabinet approved the drafting guidelines in accordance with a resolution on January 4, 2022.
Both bills have been criticized and commented on the necessity and inappropriateness of restricting people's rights either from the people’s civil society or even within the government agency itself including the international perspectives from a network of international NGOs and the United Nations Special Rapporteur. Conducting activities of non-profit organizations is part of civil society and is based on freedom of association, association, and expression. It is important to maintain and promote democracy. This work is a documentary study and aims at analyzing those two bills. Both from the principles and reasons of the draft law and the content of the law in detail, which is inconsistent with the law of a liberal democratic state, both from international law and the provisions under the current constitution. The draft laws have important content in aiming to infringe on the rights and freedoms of non-profit organizations and people and may lead to the decay of democracy and the rule of law.
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