UN Human Rights Office welcomes Thailand’s withdrawal of the reservation on Article 22 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

BANGKOK (6 September 2024) – The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) for South-East Asia welcomes Thailand’s withdrawal of the reservation to Article 22 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which will greatly enhance the protection of the human rights of refugee and asylum-seeking children in Thailand.

“Thailand’s decision to withdraw its reservation to this article is a significant, positive step towards aligning the country’s laws and policies with international human rights and refugee law standards to protect the rights of all children on the move no matter who they are or where they are from,” said Cynthia Veliko, Representative of the UN Human Rights Office for South-East Asia.

The decision of the Thai Cabinet to withdraw Thailand’s reservation to Article 22 came into effect on 30 August 2024. Article 22 of the CRC establishes the rights of refugee and asylum-seeking children to protection, humanitarian assistance, and access to support and other services equal to that of children who are nationals, as set out in the Convention and other international human rights instruments to which Thailand is a State Party.

The withdrawal of the reservation on the CRC can further enable the Government of Thailand to ensure that all children are protected under the recently introduced National Screening Mechanism (NSM), effective on 22 September 2023, which grants the status of “protected person” to those who enter or stay in Thailand but are unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin for fear of persecution for valid reasons.

However, children without legal status in Thailand can still be subjected to immigration detention, despite the Government’s issuance of a Memorandum of Understanding on the Establishment of Measures and Approaches for Alternatives to the Detention of Children in Immigration Detention Centres (MOU-ATD) in 2019.

In its expert guidance, the Committee on the Rights of the Child has stated unequivocally that every child, at all times, has a fundamental right to liberty and freedom from immigration detention.

“I urge the Government of Thailand to now focus on ending child immigration detention and implementing human rights-based alternatives to detention. Children on the move are children first and foremost and detention because of their or their parents’ migration status is never in their best interests. As a consequence, human rights-based alternatives to detention should be provided to all children without discrimination as to their national origin, mode of travel or port of entry or any other considerations,” Veliko said.

The UN Human Rights Office for South-East Asia is available to support and collaborate with the Government of Thailand and other stakeholders to further develop and implement alternatives to immigration detention to ensure that every child on the move receives the protection and care they need.

For more information and media requests, please contact:

Wannaporn Samutassadong – +66 65 986 0810 / wannaporn.samutassadong@un.org 

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