Arbitrary Detention in Thailand’s Deep South

Written by Daniel Lewis, Country Coordinator for Thailand and Laos

In Thailand's southernmost provinces, 43% of people who finally made it to trial after detention under emergency laws were acquitted and found not guilty due to lack of evidence. This means that for every 100 people held in military camps without charge, without lawyers, often for over a month, 43 were completely innocent. Their only crime, living in a conflict zone.

In July 2024, Thailand extended its Emergency Decree in the Deep South for the 77th consecutive time. The International Commission of Jurists called for these laws to be repealed, but still, the detentions continue with far less international scrutiny than they deserve.

Three Laws, Zero Accountability

Since 2004, three overlapping security laws have created what human rights experts call a "legal black hole" in Thailand's provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, and parts of Songkhla. Together, the Martial Law Act of 1914 and the Emergency Decree of 2005 allow security forces to detain people for over a month without judicial oversight.

Under martial law, military authorities can hold someone for seven days without a warrant or charge. The Emergency Decree adds another 30 days of detention, renewable indefinitely. Combined, people can be held for 37 days or longer without ever seeing a judge. Both laws grant security forces legal immunity from prosecution or compensation claims for actions taken under their authority.

The Emergency Decree has been renewed every 90 days for two decades, currently remaining in force across 15 districts affecting roughly 1.8 million residents. And unlike similar emergency powers Thailand imposed during COVID-19, the government has never sought international derogation for these restrictions in the Deep South; effectively denying they limit human rights at all.

In July 2024, the International Commission of Jurists stated that these laws "do not comply with Thailand's human rights obligations" and "grant extraordinary but vaguely conceived powers" that "unduly limit or even suspend a wide range of human rights." The ICJ has repeatedly called for repeal or substantial amendment of both the Martial Law Act and Emergency Decree.

What makes this system particularly dangerous is that detention often occurs in "unofficial places of detention", military camps rather than civilian facilities, without judicial oversight. This creates conditions where enforced disappearance can occur, torture and ill-treatment go unreported, and no mechanism for accountability exists.

When Suspected Means Guilty

Consider the case of Aiman Hadeng. As chair of the Justice for Peace Network, a human rights organisation advocating for communities in the Deep South, Hadeng was well-known for his peaceful activism. On February 23, 2018, soldiers took him from his house in Yala during a security raid. Under the Martial Law Act, the military confiscated his mobile phone, prohibited him from calling his lawyer, and detained him incommunicado at the 12th Task Force Camp. He was later transferred for interrogation at a paramilitary division, held without charge and alleged to be involved in the insurgency.

Human Rights Watch called for his immediate release, warning that "incommunicado detention of a well-known rights activist should set off alarm bells given the army's long history of abuse in southern Thailand." Hadeng's case proves a pattern: human rights defenders, community leaders, and activists face detention under these sweeping laws, often with no evidence beyond their advocacy work.

But Hadeng isn't alone. According to documentation by Thai human rights organisations, between January 2019 and December 2023, hundreds of people were detained under these laws. In 2022, the Duay Jai Foundation interviewed 40 former detainees, of which 10 alleged they were subjected to torture and ill-treatment during detention. Research has documented that over 500 people became victims of human rights violations by security forces under these laws between 2007 and 2018. Even children are detained, with no special protections despite international law requiring safeguards for minors.

In October 2023, Chanatip Tatiyakaroonwong, Amnesty International's Thailand researcher, stated: "There have been many allegations that they [detainees] were subjected to torture ... both psychologically and physically. That has caused a lot of pain for the local population over the past 19 years."

Universal Rights Aren't Negotiable

Human rights aren't conditional on geography. The same protections that apply in Bangkok apply in Pattani. International law is clear, and Thailand has committed to upholding these standards.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Thailand has ratified, states "It shall not be the general rule that persons awaiting trial shall be detained in custody." Thailand's system in the Deep South does the opposite when detention without charge is the rule not the exception. International law requires that everyone has the right to prompt judicial review of detention, access to legal counsel, the ability to challenge the lawfulness of detention in court, and the presumption of innocence. None of these protections exist under the current system.

The prohibition against torture is absolute, it cannot be suspended even during states of emergency. Yet the UN Committee against Torture expressed concern in 2014 about "numerous allegations of torture and ill-treatment during the state of emergency in the southern border provinces." A decade later, allegations continue.

What makes this system particularly dangerous is the complete absence of accountability. Security forces cannot be sued for damages. Criminal prosecution is virtually impossible. Since the conflict began in 2004, not a single member of the security forces has been prosecuted for unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, or torture of ethnic Malay Muslims. This culture of impunity was starkly illustrated in 2019 when a Chief Judge of Yala Trial Court reportedly shot himself in public protest against pressures from senior judicial members to sentence Muslim defendants to death without adequate evidence.

This isn't about taking sides in a conflict; it's about ensuring that security measures don't violate fundamental rights that Thailand has committed to uphold. Security concerns are real, but arbitrary detention undermines both human rights and effective security by eroding the community trust that sustainable peace requires.

Time to Break the Silence

Justice delayed is justice denied. But justice ignored? That's complicity. It's time to shine a light on Thailand's Deep South.