Conflict, Legitimacy and Government Reform: Equitable Allocation of ...
Conflict, Legitimacy and Government Reform: Equitable Allocation of ...
Conflict, Legitimacy and Government Reform: Equitable Allocation of ...
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130 KPI Congress XI<br />
rights to the local operational level (vernacularization). One important<br />
question, both in theory <strong>and</strong> practice, is “What do human right<br />
activists need to do for the human rights concept to be enforced in<br />
society?”<br />
This research was conducted with the objective <strong>of</strong> studying the roles<br />
<strong>and</strong> attitudes <strong>of</strong> human rights advocates regarding human rights<br />
violations during the war against drugs <strong>of</strong> 2003 when over 2,500 people<br />
were murdered within a short period <strong>of</strong> three months from February to<br />
April <strong>of</strong> 2003. <strong>Government</strong> <strong>of</strong>ficials <strong>and</strong> the media have <strong>of</strong>ten associated<br />
these murders with drugs <strong>and</strong> the term “extrajudicial killing” has been<br />
invented to explain the occurrence. It is known that, drug traders killed<br />
each other so the government <strong>of</strong>ficials wouldn’t trace smaller drug dealer<br />
to the larger dealers. Extrajudicial killing also meant cutting <strong>of</strong>f the<br />
examination process associated with all <strong>of</strong> the murders during that time<br />
from the <strong>of</strong>ficial judicial system, i.e. not one single case involving<br />
individuals performing “extrajudicial killing” was to be tried. In the<br />
same way, the sympathy or suspicions <strong>of</strong> Thai society toward these<br />
murders were also extrajudicial. The society put up with <strong>and</strong> accepted<br />
the necessity <strong>of</strong> using violence to solve drug problems. The results <strong>of</strong> this<br />
extrajudicial killing left the victims’ family members to face the fate on<br />
their own. Thai society virtually had no shared pain <strong>and</strong> envisioned no<br />
threat in the use <strong>of</strong> violence supported by the government.<br />
In addition to the National Human Rights Committee, some<br />
human rights activists also try to become a voice in protection <strong>of</strong> human<br />
rights. The significance <strong>of</strong> this research is to search for a conceptual<br />
framework <strong>and</strong> see how human right activists apply the law <strong>and</strong> the<br />
concept <strong>of</strong> international human rights on a local level.