The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) says using conscripts as servants by army officers is a human rights violation and has called on the Defence Ministry to eliminate the practice within 90 days.
NHRC commisioner Wasan Paileeklee on Thursday told a press conference that the commission has looked at the use of conscripts as servants for senior commissioned officers, including their wives and children.
According to a Defence Ministry ministerial regulation (1912), commissioned officers can appoint conscripted men to serve them and their families, specifically for household affairs. Mr Wasan said that sections 49-57 of the ministerial regulation also allows commissioned officers to punish conscripts as they see fit.
However, the Defence Ministry's Public Administration Act (2008) eliminated the use of servant conscripts. Instead, the act enables the army to deploy conscripts for duties such as administration, sanitation and other affairs concerning retired army officials.
"The use of both servant and service conscripts is a misuse of drafted men. Even though some of them are willing to serve their superiors, it is against the purpose of military conscription," Mr Wasan said.
He said the ministerial regulations created ambiguity allowing senior officers to call in conscripts for their personal affairs. Even worse, some of them have abused conscripts mentally and physically, a violation of the constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The NHRC has pointed out to the Defence Ministry the rights violations and called for the scrapping of the clause in the 1912 ministerial regulations.
"The NHRC expects the Defence Ministry to endorse the new protocol within 90 days," he said.
In August last year, a former soldier filed a report with Muang police in Ratchaburi stating she was abused by a female police corporal. The victim claimed her employer burned her using a hair curler, hit her with a metal bar, and once sprayed alcohol on her hair and set it on fire.
