The caretaker cabinet has approved a draft Royal Decree on research criteria and ethics, which would result in the formation of committee to investigate academic research receiving government and public funding that violates “religious principles, culture, traditions, and good public morals.”

A summary of the 27 August caretaker cabinet meeting published on the Thai government website stated that the Cabinet has approved the draft decree.

The text of the decree, published in the summary, states that the decree is needed because Thailand currently has no regulation of academic research that could potentially create “conflicts or undermine religious principles, affect traditional local or national morality, violate morals, or involve unfair discrimination.” It adds that there is also a lack of ethical oversight of researchers and organisations involved in national research and innovation systems through the provision of research funding.

The decree orders the formation of a committee to investigate research that could go against religious principles, culture, traditions, and good morals. The committee will be responsible for ensuring that researchers and funding bodies follow research criteria and ethics. It will also investigate any research suspected of going against religious principles, culture, traditions, and good morals.

The decree defines research that goes against “religious principles, culture, traditions, and good public morals” as

1. research that goes against the important basic principles of a religion and could lead to conflict;
2. research that could lead to division, conflict, defamation, devaluation, and the mockery of local or national culture, traditions, and morals, as well as research deemed to “strongly oppose” local or national culture, traditions, and morals;
3. research which openly goes against local or national morality and could lead to wide-spread violation of those morals;
4. research that could lead to discrimination and divisions in the local community or the country; as well as research that devaluates or violates human life, honour, equality, rights, and freedom; and
5. other types of research as dictated by the committee.

If a research project is found to be against religious principles, culture, traditions, or good morals, the committee could order supporting organisations to cut funding. If the research is academically or professionally useful, the decree allows for the research to be continued under conditions set by the Committee, which can stipulate how the research must be conducted and published.

If the researcher does not follow set condition, the Committee can ask organisations in the research system or other relevant organisations to take further actions. It may also ask the project’s funding organisations to suspend funding to the researchers.