THAILAND: MINISTRY OF JUSTICE LOOKS TO ABOLISH DEATH PENALTY

December 22, 2014: a senior official said Thailand may abolish the death penalty in the near future.
"The Ministry of Justice has drafted its plan for national human rights. The goal of the plan is to abolish death penalty," said Chanchao Chaiyanukit, deputy permanent secretary of the Ministry of Justice.
He continued, "It is possible for us to abolish death penalty, if we manage to accomplish the national human rights plan and convince the public to be confident that the Ministry can still punish wrongdoers without death penalty."
The official's comment came after Bowornsak Uwanno, the head of the junta-appointed Constitutional Drafting Committee (CDC), suggested that it is time for Thailand to do away with death penalty. Bowornsak said he planned to push ahead with his proposal by adding a clause in the new Constitution to explicitly ban death sentence in Thailand.
On 18 December 2014, Thailand abstained from the Resolution on a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty at the UN General Assembly. It is the third consecutive time that Thai delegates abstained from voting on the motion; Thailand voted no in 2008, when the motion was first introduced to the UN General Assembly, and 2009. (Sources: chiangraitimes.com, 22/12/2014)