2017 Constitution
13 Mar 2020
On Friday morning (13 March), a group of civil society organizations and members of the public, led by the Committee Campaigning for a People’s Constitution (CCPC), iLaw, and the People Go Network Forum, marched to parliament to submit a petition demanding an amendment to the 2017 Constitution.
13 Mar 2020
"Talk for Freedom," a new documentary by iLaw and Prachatai, tells the story of Mafang and Pai Dao Din, two of the participants in the Talk for Freedom public forum on the draft of the 2017 constitution in Khon Kaen.
20 Feb 2020
On Wednesday (19 February), the Constitutional Court of Thailand ruled that Section 301 of the Thai Criminal Code which criminalizes abortion, violates the current Constitution and must be amended.
17 Feb 2020
2019 is counted as the year when the arc of Thai politics was most striking since it was a time of transition from the ‘dark era’ under almost 5 years of the NCPO to the ‘hazy era’ after the election (which had been postponed 6 times) under the 2017 Constitution whose complicated design locked politics into a multilayered parliamentary system, and the Future Forward Party emerged to strongly challenge the old system.
27 Jun 2019
The Constitutional Court has accepted a petition by the Future Forward Party against 32 MPs out of 41 for holding shares in media companies, but they are not suspended as MPs.
18 Jun 2019
Even if the cabinet arrangement fails to hold a majority in the House, the junta can still function minimally with help of the Constitution and unelected Senate.
12 Dec 2017
Pro-democracy activists gathered at the Democracy Monument on Constitution Day to remind the public that the junta’s constitution is undemocratic.
At 4.50 pm on Thailand’s Constitution Day, 10 December 2017, about 100 people marched from Thammasat University to the Democracy Monument amid tight security.
The activity was led by pro-democracy activists Pansak Srithep, Payao Akhad and Rangsiman Rome.
10 Nov 2017
Amid rumours that the junta will form its own political party to compete in the political arena, the human rights advocacy group iLaw points out that the regime does not need to form a party to prolong its rule.
According to iLaw, under the new political system, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) does not need to establish a political party to prolong its rule. It can instead rely on the senate.
21 Sep 2017
Forming political alliances, securing military influence, creating extra-parliamentary mechanisms and establishing dominant ideology are things that the ruling junta has learnt from the 2006 wasted coup, says an academic.
24 Jun 2017
Seminal historian Thongchai Winichakul argues that Thailand’s many constitutions have progressively torn power from the people to be placed back in the hands of the King — a process seen most clearly in the latest charter.
5 May 2017
Political activists have urged the police to release Jatuphat ‘Pai Dao Din’ Boonpattararaksa, saying the court decision to repeatedly reject his bail requests is ‘unconstitutional’.
On 5 May 2017, Chalita Bundhuwong, a Kasetsart University lecturer, and Nuttaa Mahattana, an independent political activist, submitted a letter to Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda, Chief of the Royal Thai Police, at the National Police Office in Bangkok.
9 Apr 2017
After almost three years in power and billions of baht spent in drafting the new constitution, the 20th Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand was officially enacted on 6 April 2017. Thailand has gone through 19 constitutions in less than a century and there is no guarantee that the latest one drafted by the junta-appointed Constitution Drafting Committee will be the last one.
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