Communication to Thailand on forced evictions for climate mitigation measures

On December 1, 2022, eight UN Special Procedures on the right to adequate housing, climate change, environment, food, human rights defenders, minority issues, extreme poverty, and contemporary forms of racism, jointly issued a communication to Thailand expressing their deep concern about the (threat of) forced eviction of 14 Isan minority members (9 women, 5 men), who are also land-right defenders, from their lands and homes in the Sab Wai village. The eviction orders were issued in pursuit of climate mitigation action under forest conservation policies and legislation, without provision of alternative accommodation and productive land, nor adequate compensation. According to information received, Thailand’s updated nationally determined contribution (NDC) set aims to reduce GHGs by 20% compared to ‘business as usual by 2030, when compared to 2005 as the baseline year, and to achieve carbon (CO2) neutrality by 2050, and net-zero by 2065. A key strategy for meeting these objectives is to enhance forestry carbon sinks, including by reforestation, and improved conservation. The Thai government has adopted a 20-Year National Strategy, aiming to increase the country’s forested area to 55 percent of the total Thai territory by 2037 and adopted a Forest Reclamation Policy of 2014. A key complaint is that the chosen strategy for meeting NDC targets negatively impacts, and even criminalizes forest-dependent communities, including minority and indigenous peoples and small-scale farmers and those having traditionally lived in or near national parks. An important concern is that the policies criminalize any person or entity which ‘destroys’ protected forests, which could include those who traditionally live and farm in protected area. Those concerned call the strategy a ‘false solution’ to the climate crisis, for it moves attention away from necessary energy sector reforms. Moreover, despite earlier commitments that the Forest Reclamation Policy would primarily target large-scale investors and developers, and ‘protect the poor, landless and those who had settled in an area before it was declared as protected’, the actual implementation of the forestry policy is problematic. Based on the forestry laws and policies, 14 Isan minority community members of the Sab Wai village in Chaiyaphum Province, central northeastern Thailand, are threatened by forced eviction from the lands they lived and farmed on since the 1970s, as they were identified as ‘forest destroyers’ under the current legislation. Their village is located in Sai Thong National Park, which was established in their living area in 1992. According to the UN Special Procedures, the evictions constitute violations of international human rights law, since the villagers are not provided with alternative accommodation or productive land, nor adequate compensation. Actions to mitigate adverse effects of climate change must take into account negative impacts on the human rights of forest dependent communities, including especially their right to adequate standard of living, including food and housing. This is closely tied to communities’ right to land as well. The UN Special Procedures reaffirm forest-dependent minorities and communities’ ‘right to land, including the right to have access to, sustainably use and manage land and forests’. They ask how the Thai government intends to protect this right through measures aimed at legal recognition of ‘land tenure rights, including customary land tenure rights not currently protected by law’. The communication is based on Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), as further interpreted through CESCR General Comment No. 4 on the Right to Adequate Housing, CESCR General Comment No. 7 on forced evictions, and the UN Basic Principles and Guidelines on Development-Based Evictions and Displacement. The latter clarifies, amongst others, that ‘evictions can only take place in 'exceptional circumstances'; that they must be authorized by law, and ensure full and fair compensation and rehabilitation’. The communication also outlines how ‘eviction-impact assessments’ should be carried out to explore alternatives and minimization of harm that may result from an inevitable eviction. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas was also cited, in recognition that ‘peasants and other people working in rural areas have the right to contribute to the design and implementation of national and local climate change adaptation and mitigation policies’. Case specific observations on possible human rights violations and requests for further information, highlight that the Thai government’s forestry and environment-related laws and regulations, and their implementation, have discriminatory effects on specific ethnic groups and indigenous peoples, and that the Isan group more generally is subject to ‘direct and indirect, multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination’. They also ask how forest-dependent communities were consulted or participated in ‘the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of mitigation measures affecting them’, and what the outcomes of ‘human rights impact assessments of climate change mitigation measures’ have been. Specifically, consultation with the Isan minority villagers from the Sab Wai village should explore ‘feasible alternatives to the evictions, including the possibility to remain in situ or the provision of alternative land and housing and adequate compensation, and the outcome of these consultations’. The Permanent Mission of Thailand in Geneva acknowledged receipt of the communication, but no formal response on behalf of the Thai government is registered in the communications repository to date.