The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) yesterday made a recommendation urging the Ministry of Defence to revoke the 1992 Ministerial Regulation that allows high-ranking officers to keep soldiers as domestic helpers within 90 days, as the practice is a degradation of human dignity.

The practice of placing conscripts in superiors' homes has been a privilege that high-ranking officers have long enjoyed. The NHRC said the regulations allowing soldiers to be used for non-military tasks violate human rights. 

Earlier, the rights organization had received a complaint regarding a former female soldier who was ordered to assist in the operations of a Parliamentary committee but was instead taken to work at the residence of a female police officer. Her responsibility was to take care of the police officer's household.

During her two-year service, she alleged that she was physically assaulted multiple times and sustained severe injuries. 

Another complainant identified that the Ministry of Defence's Ministerial Regulation 1912, Sections 49-57, specifies that a commissioned officer can have a personal servant and is allowed to punish their soldiers. The servant soldiers' duties also include serving the spouses and children in the households of the officer.

The NHRC considers that the Thai constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) of which Thailand is a signatory, provide protection of the right to life and bodily integrity of individuals. 

Meanwhile, the restructuring of the Ministry of Defence's internal administration following the Ministry of Defence Reorganisation Act in 2008 (B.E. 2551) resulted in the removal of the "servant soldier" position.

But what followed was the creation of the position of "military service personnel" to perform administrative tasks, healthcare, and area management within a military unit, as well as other missions as authorized by a commanding officer.

This loophole gives high-ranking military officers the power to request junior soldiers to serve as domestic help and risks the possibility that those with higher authority may commit acts that undermine the human dignity of low-ranking soldiers.