<p>On Thailand’s Children’s Day in January, Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the Thai junta leader, said in a TV program that ‘knowledge and morality will lead us to the future’. Using the concept of morality as guidance, the junta is striving to make Buddhism a state religion and convincing children to follow the moral guidance of the King and love the nation, religion, and monarchy. The junta is looking to apply its definitions of morality to holders of political posts and civil servants. The junta’s Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) has now laid out plans to create a ‘National Virtue Assembly’, a supra-governmental body which could determine the moral or ethical standards of public officials.</p> <p></p>

<p>In January 2015, the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) began drafting the new Thai constitution with the promise of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.constitutionnet.org/news/thailand-next-constitution-will-be-totally-new">significant changes</a>&nbsp;to return true democracy to the country. Yet, as the drafting continues, there is growing concern that it will never deliver on its promise. Thailand’s clock will turn back at least two decades to the pre-1997 era, which was characterized by weak and chaotic government and by the unchecked power of unelected elites.&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">Thailand’s human rights agency will submit a letter to the Thai junta leader, urging it to reconsider the plan to merge the agency with the Ombudsman Office, while civil groups condemned the plan.</p>

<div>Thai constitutional drafters, under the military regime, is including regulations on ‘hate speech’ in the new constitutional draft for the first time in Thai law.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Kamnoon Sidhisaman, the spokesperson of the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC), announced the results of the CDC meeting on freedom of expression that on top of mentioning vaguely that freedom of expression is guaranteed with the limitations of respect towards the rights of others, the committee has included ‘hate speech’ into the new draft constitution.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Kamnoon said </div>