Bangkok, Paris, 10 April 2026. In an open letter to Thailand’s 32nd Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, FIDH, UCL, iLaw, and TLHR highlight 10 key human rights priorities raised by United Nations (UN) human rights mechanism and call on Mr. Anutin and his administration to effectively address these unresolved issues without delay.
"As a current member of the UN Human Rights Council, Thailand has pledged to heed recommendations made by UN human rights mechanisms ’in the formulation and implementation of policies and legislation’. It is incumbent on the new government to implement many UN human rights recommendations that have been ignored for far too long," said FIDH Vice-President Teppei Ono.
FIDH identified and selected the human rights priorities by analysing recurring recommendations that Thailand received from various UN human rights monitoring mechanisms over the course of more than two decades. [1]
Based on this analysis, FIDH made practical recommendations on the following issues: space for civil society organisations and human rights defenders; accountability for extrajudicial killings, torture and enforced disappearances; protection of refugees and asylum seekers; amendment of problematic laws; improvement of prison conditions; the situation in the Southern Border Provinces; the death penalty; and gender equality and gender-based violence.
FIDH calls on Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and his administration to take significant steps during the first 100 days in office to place the above-referenced issues at the core of the government’s human rights agenda and chart the process of implementation of the associated recommendations.
Controversial election
Thailand’s most recent general election was held on 8 February 2026. The conservative Bhumjai Thai (BJT) Party, led by Anutin Charnvirakul, secured a victory with 191 seats in the 500-seat House of Representatives. The progressive People’s Party came in second place with 120 seats, a significant drop from the 151 seats its predecessor Move Forward had won in the 2023 election.
The latest polls were marred by widespread allegations of irregularities and the Election Commission’s lack of transparency in vote counting across constituencies nationwide.
Following the election, the BJT Party formed a coalition government of 16 parties, including Pheu Thai Party, holding a combined 292 seats in Parliament. On 19 March 2026, Anutin was reappointed Prime Minister after securing 293 votes, defeating the People’s Party’s prime ministerial candidate Nattapong Ruangpanyawut, who received 119 votes. On 31 March 2026, he assumed office upon receiving the official endorsement by King Rama X. On 6 April 2026, his 35-member cabinet was sworn in before the King.
Anutin first became Prime Minister in September 2025 following the Constitutional Court’s removal of Paetongtarn Shinawatra of Pheu Thai Party from office for an ethics violation in connection with her handling of the Thai-Cambodian conflict. In December 2025, Anutin dissolved the Parliament shortly after the People’s Party, who held a majority of seats, announced plans to file a no-confidence motion against his minority government over constitutional amendment disagreements.