Thailand is a constitutional monarchy. In 2006, a bloodless military coup deposed the elected government in which the governing party held 375 of the 500 seats. The election had been deemed as generally free and fair, but rumours of vote-buying persisted. The King accepted the military's action in deposing the elected government and imposing martial law. New elections are scheduled to be held in 2007, until which time the country will remain under martial law. In the southern provinces, martial law has been replaced by an emergency decree giving security power to the armed forces.

In these areas separatist violence continues, in part because of attempts, following the December 2004 tsunami, to evict persons from land they had occupied for decades, with companies claiming residents had not owned the land prior to the disaster. The judiciary is independent in law but is reported to be subject to pressure. Shari'a courts hear civil cases for the Muslim minority.

Discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion, disability, language or social status is illegal but is reported to exist in practice.

Extrajudicial killings and excessive use of force by police are reported. Corruption in government is pervasive.

Martial law limits freedom of the press. Preservation of national security is presented as the reason to restrict freedom of speech and of the press, and national security is claimed as the reason why the military and the police own 230 radio stations. 2 Internet sites have been closed because of political content. Also not permitted are criticism of the royal family and insults to Buddhism. The deposed Prime Minister filed 6 civil and criminal libel suits against a newspaper. Human Rights Watch notes that "intimidation, fear, and censorship still permeate the Thai media." Internet censors ban web sites featuring pornography or illegal products. Internet service providers cooperate in blocking access to proscribed sites.

Thailand is a source, transit and destination country for trafficking in women and children for forced labour and sexual exploitation. The traffickers are reportedly helped by local officials. The government is cooperating with international groups in an investigation of trafficking. Entire families are reported to be trafficked for sweatshop labour. The UN Economic and Social Council notes that some hill tribe women and their children are made vulnerable to trafficking by a lack of citizenship.

About 1.5% of the population is estimated to be HIV-positive. Anti-retroviral drugs are provided as part of the universal health care plan, and funds have been provided for public education on HIV/AIDS prevention. Family and friends sometimes reject HIV-positive persons, who may also be refused employment.

Education is compulsory for 9 years and tuition-free for 12 years. Almost all children attend primary school, and 79% complete secondary school. Public funding is provided to Buddhist and Muslim institutes of higher education, as well as religious education programmes in both public and private schools, with religious education being required in public primary and secondary schools. Students who pursue religious studies at a religious school can transfer credits to a public school. Islamic schools are not required to register with the government since they receive no public funding.

About 20,000 street children live in major urban centres and receive little or no education. Foreign street children are repatriated, while citizen children are sent to their home provinces where they are placed in occupational training centres. Street children, most of whom are non-citizens, tend to be excluded from national statistics, which count only citizen children.

A 3-year programme begins at age 3. The Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) is 92%.

Education is compulsory for ages 6 to 14. Primary school begins at age 6 and lasts 6 years. 48% of students are girls. At this level 15% of education is private. The GER is 99%. There are 298,270 ECE teachers (58% female). The PTR is 21 : 1.

Secondary education begins at age 12 and lasts 6 years. At this level 9% of education is private. 29% of students in upper secondary education study in technical vocational programmes. The GER is 77%. There are 215,798 secondary teachers, 127,185 (57% female) in lower secondary and 88,613 (50% female) in upper secondary education. The PTR is 24 : 1 in lower secondary and 26 : 1 in upper secondary schools.

2,251,453 students (54% female) study in tertiary institutions, for a GER of 41%. At this level 18% of education is private. Foreign students studying in Thailand come from Asia (2,089), North America and Western Europe (263), Central and Eastern Europe (53), Sub-Saharan Africa (13), the Arab States (9) and Latin America and the Caribbean (5). At the same time, 23,727 Thai students are studying abroad, mainly in the USA (8,937), Australia (5,449), the UK (3,754), Japan (1,604) and Germany (958).

Persons with disabilities are precluded from certain positions. A court upheld the right of a physically disabled lawyer to apply for a job as a state attorney. Persons with disabilities who are registered with the government receive free medical care. An estimated 163,000 children with disabilities attend school. 12,500 students are enrolled in 43 special schools, and the rest are mainstreamed into public schools. Vocational training for persons with disabilities is provided by 9 government and 15 NGO training centres.

The government has been asked to provide additional places in education since schools have had to turn away students, and as many as 23% of persons with disabilities graduated from lower secondary school in 2002. Wage discrimination against disabled persons is reported. 82 Juvenile Protection Centres are in operation, and 12 new centres were scheduled to open in 2006.

The law does not provide for granting asylum or refugee status in accordance with the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees or its 1967 Protocol. But the government cooperates with the UNHCR and other humanitarian organisations in assisting refugees. NGOs provide food, medical services, housing and other services to Burmese refugees who live outside the camps. The government has indicated it is willing to permit education and vocational training for refugee children, but the details remain unclear.

Lack of citizenship makes hill tribe members vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Those without citizenship have been given colour-coded identity cards that restrict their freedom of movement and land ownership and leave them unprotected by labour laws or minimum wage legislation. Citizenship is not automatically granted to children of illegal immigrants or those without legal status, who are then denied education and health care in some areas.

In 2005 citizenship was granted to some 2,500 Vietnamese refugees and their descendants, as well as to Chinese civil war refugee descendants. In 2004, some 79,200 migrant children under age 15 were given temporary residence permits under the migrant labour policy allowing them access to the public school system if their parent's employer provides proof of employed status to school authorities. Many employers have not done so.

While reports do not cite restrictions of academic freedom, it is noted that in November 2006 an Indonesian academic known for his studies of the Suharto regime was denied entry to Thailand when airport immigration authorities announced that he was on a list of persons not welcome in Thailand.

Equality of all citizens is provided in law, but inequalities remain. Legislation makes it more difficult for a woman to initiate divorce proceedings than for a man. Women make up 48% of the workforce and increasingly hold professional positions. Whereas 52% of professional and technical positions are held by women, they hold only 26% of administration and management positions. Legislation requires equal pay for work of equal value, but discrimination in hiring concentrates women in lower-paying jobs. More than 50% of university graduates are women. Police and military academies only accept women students to be trained as nurses.

Sexual harassment is illegal, but the legislation applies only in the formal sector. Initiation rites of incoming college students are reported to include sexual harassment. Muslim women civil servants are forbidden to wear the hijab when in uniform, but many do so without repercussion.

Domestic violence is prohibited in law but is reported as a problem. Academics and activists report that domestic assaults are under-reported. Trafficking in women and children for prostitution is a serious problem NGOs report some 200,000 to 300,000 women and children work as prostitutes or are in debt bondage Sex tourism is a problem.

A national strategy to eliminate the worst forms of child labour has been enacted. The minimum age for employment is 15 except in agriculture and the informal sector. Domestic service thus does not come under the minimum age legislation, though there is increased protection for children working in homes and in agriculture. The minimum age for employment is now coordinated with the end of compulsory education. Children aged 15 to 18 may be employed in light work but cannot work at night or in places in where alcohol is served. About 1 million children work on family farms.

Some 4% of children aged 6 to 14 work illegally in the informal sector (eg not attending compulsory school, working at night). 10,728 children are reported to be domestic servants. An ILO study reports that drug dealers in Bangkok use boys for drug deliveries. Children are sent to correctional homes if arrested. Anti-trafficking projects have been implemented to help stop the trafficking of children. Vocational training programmes for secondary school students have now increased the range of options for students in the hope this will deter trafficking.

Workers in the private sector have the right to form and join trade unions. Union officials must be full-time employees of the company or state enterprise. Some 4% of the total work force is unionised, but more than 50% of government workers. The agricultural and informal sectors are not unionised. Migrant workers do not have the right to form unions, but registered migrants may be members of unions led by citizens. School teachers as well as civil servants can register associations with no right to bargain collectively.

Collective bargaining in the private sector is permitted, but wage increases result from increases in the minimum wage rather than from collective contracts. Wages for civil servants are set by the Ministry of Finance. Private sector strikes that are thought to affect national security can be prohibited, as can strikes in essential services. Essential services are more broadly defined than the ILO believes is necessary. Labour laws apply in export processing zones. A contract labour system that provides no benefits is increasingly being used by employers.

Forced or compulsory labour is prohibited except in a national emergency, war or during martial law. The minimum wage varies from US $3.47 to US$4.52 (139 baht to 181 baht) a day and is set by provincial wage committees. This wage does not provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family. The work week is 48 hours.