Unveiling the Invisibility Cloak

Book excerpt: Despite being an act that is widely practiced under the guise of a significant number of States, little is known about the intrinsic realities of enforced disappearances. General literature on the topic is lacking, and laws that address the problem are scarce. Enforced disappearances have only come to the attention of the international community fairly recently. At the dawn of this century, Thailand understandably remains one of the most active countries in the practice of enforcedly disappearing people as a means of removing them from the protection of the law because of no legally justifiable reason for arrest or detention - an ultimate breach of the Rule of Law. This book aims to attribute responsibility to the Kingdom of Thailand for failing to introduce legal mechanisms and safeguards to protect its citizens - in breach of its State duties - from enforced disappearances. In an attempt to remove pre-existing ambiguities on what basic human rights are being violated and by whom, the author comparatively analyses international human rights jurisprudence vis-a-vis certain Latin American and European countries. The jurisprudence reiterates that the human rights implications of enforced disappearances do not only depend on the State refraining from committing such acts directly, but also from its indirect acquiescence and tolerance of the act being committed by non-State agents. The repeated reports of enforced disappearances throughout its history make Thailand hypothetically accountable (since nothing can supersede State sovereignty). Still, the author hopes that this book will provide the guidance needed to help improve the human rights compliance in Thailand and, in due course, rid the country of this terrible practice. To this end, this book also contains first-hand contribution from experts and advocates to human rights in Thailand.