Mass murdering of Thaï drugs users : Thaïland must rescind its criminal policy

The new government of Thailand, elected in December, has revived a 2003 policy backed by then-Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, using harsh measures to wage a “War on Drugs”. This policy consists of killing drug users whether by police or militias, including of many people having no connection to drugs, and often on their way back from being questioned at their local police station before any trial had taken place. According to the NGO Human Rights Watch based on Thai data, this policy of extermination is responsible for the deaths of more than 2819 people between February and April 2003.

The revival of such a policy is intolerable and must be condemned.

Beyond the indefensible mass murdering of human beings, this policy drives drug users even further underground, away from AIDS and hepatitis prevention and treatment programs run by self-support networks, causing serious public health consequences (including murder) in a country where the IDU HIV epidemic is significant. No needle exchange exist in the country, and methadone substitution programs are difficult to access and not paid for by the government, despite international recommendations for comprehensive harm reduction services for people who use drugs.

We demand that the Interior Minister of Thailand, Chalerm Yubamrung, and the Prime Minister, Samak Sundaravej, renounce their policy of drug suppression that flaunts human rights standards, and immediately implement an evidence-based harm reduction program based on a respect for human rights and in collaboration with the drugs users themselves, and their advocates. Such a program would include : full coverage of needles exchange, free and non-discriminatory access to substitution therapies covered under universal access policies, a campaign against discrimination, promotion of self-support organizations, decriminalization of people who use drugs, and urgent trainings for police and health care providers on harm reduction principlesetc.

We demand that Nicolas Sarkozy publicly condemn Thailand’s violations, the prospect of a new, potentially more repressive drug policy, and call for its repeal.

Consulting the Geneva Convention of 1951 relative to the right to asylum, we also demand that the OFPRA in France, and the French and European MoFA in particular, protect Thai citizens who appeal for asylum across the EU for fear of persecution in their own country. At the very least, a specific protection should be set up.

In addition, Act Up-Paris demands that Thailand continue to produce and import generic drugs as international law permits, in order to treat all its patients, including the poorest. Pressure from the pharmaceutical industry, the United States or the European Union should not prevent Thaïland from focusing on access to treatment.