2　タイと子どもの人権―――難民・移民・エスニック・マイノリティの子どもから考える

抄録

This paper has the following three purposes: One is to examine the formation process of international norm to protect children. Second is to investigate how the Thai government has changed the policy on children after the ratification of the Convention of the Rights on the Child in 1992. Third is to evaluate the counter-measures of the Thai government on refugee children, immigrant children and ethnic minority children after the revealing their actual condition of them.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention of the Rights of the Child in 1989. The Thai government ratified the Convention in 1992. Then, it established the Child Protection Act (B.E.2546) in 2003. Moreover, the Cabinetʼs resolution of 5 July 2005 provides any non-registered children, including children of non-registered migrants as well as stateless children with access to the regular education system. Improved legislation and better provision of services have led to a more protective environment for the majority of children in Thailand. However, many still have been excluded from social and economic improvements, particularly the children of refugees and asylum-seekers, of migrant families and of the ethnic minorities.

Especially in northern Thailand, there are many unregistered children from minority groups. They have very limited access to social services such as health care, education and legal protections from abuse and child labor. Their families are poor and discriminated against in Thai society. So, some children are forced to work as street children, factory workers and sex workers.

The United Nation Committee on the Rights of the Child urges policy changes of the Thai government on children, although it welcomes the adoption of the Child Protection Act in 2003 as positive steps. The areabased NGOs also support these vulnerable children. Hence, the world standard of childʼs rights penetrates into Thai government policies and society through the urging by the United Nations and the grass-roots approach by NGOs.