Human Rights Protection Under the Government Procurement of Thailand

Abstract

It is the state’s obligation to protect, respect and fulfill the human rights of individuals and groups, however, the human rights violation by enterprises still occurs in the corporate sector. There is an idea to use a government procurement to fulfill any values which state deems important including Human Rights by regulating the government procurement criteria or addressing any clause in the contract for the enterprise to comply with. Since the government procurement is a significant economic activity which attracts many enterprises, therefore, using the government procurement may lead to the successful protection and promotion of human rights. In Thailand, there is no regulation related to government procurement that can be applied to promote and protect the human rights. This article shall study the important of government procurement as a tool to protect and promote the human rights, in the mean of state’s obligation and international trade, and the problem which may be occurred during the legislation. The study in the mean of state obligation found that government procurement is the significant tool to respect, protect and fulfill the human rights. The study in the mean of international trade found that many developed countries such as the United States uses the human right issue to pressure other countries. Using the government procurement shall reduce the pressure which occurs in the international trade. Therefore, this article proposed that Government Procurement and Supplies Management Act B.E. 2560 should be amended as the tool to promote and protect the human right and the law should be amended to cover all the enterprises which receive the benefit from the government procurement and consider the impact for the international trade in the future if Thailand desires to do the trade agreement for the government procurement market.