THAILAND’S EFFORT TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN:ONE FORM OF CRIME MOTIVATED BY GENDER DISCRIMINATION
Santanee Ditsayabut*

Although there are many forms of crime motivated by gender discrimination, I chose to address the issueof violence against women as one form of gender-related crime which has its own complexities. It is considereda real challenge for the criminal justice system in Thailand to deal with this type of crime effectively.
Consider the three cases below.
The first case concerns a drunk man, the ex-husband, who came to ring the doorbell at the front gate,yelling for his ex-wife to open the door, and promptly said, “Don’t try to hide from me, you can’t escapeanyway”. However, the woman stayed silent with her daughter behind the closed door. After waiting for awhile, she peeked out from the window and saw a fire burning her clothes that were hanging on theclothesline near the front gate. She, together with her daughter, hastily extinguished the fire. The results of
the investigation revealed that the ex-husband had reached out his hand into the house to ignite a cigarette
lighter and set fire to those clothes. The prosecutor indicted the man for the offence of criminal mischief.
Even though, he was convicted, the Court ordered a suspension of his punishment because the damage value
for the clothes was trivial.
The second case is related to a defendant who was a university professor. On the night of the incident,
the defendant brutally attacked his wife and hit her with a blunt object until she died. The Supreme Court,
after having examined the case based on the evidence, concluded that the defendant was a doctorate degree
professor, who continuously and carefully preserved his honour and reputation. His wife had a duty to takecare of their son by taking him to and from school. On the day of the incident, she was heavily intoxicated,and did not go to pick up her son but left him with her servant alone at the school. She had also failed to pickup the defendant, which was the cause of their quarrel. She confessed to the defendant that she had met withher ex-boyfriend. Even though the defendant was highly educated, he is just a layman. In his anger, hegrabbed the umbrella from his golf bag to hit his wife, although he could have chosen other lethal weapons.
His weapon choice suggested that he had no intention to kill his wife. When he saw her lying unresponsive,
he thought at first that it was because she was drunk and quickly sent her to the hospital while calling his
wife’s relatives to come take care of her. Since the defendant was well-educated and had confessed to his
crimes, the court found him guilty but agreed to a reduced sentence, in order to allow the defendant to turnover a new leaf and to take care of his son.
In the third case, Soi lived with Ray since she was 17 and he was 23. They have 1 child and initially lived
happily together. However, Ray gradually started to drink more and more, spending all his money on alcoholand cigarettes rather than on paying the bills. Instead, it fell on Soi to support the family by selling meat at
the market. She also had to take care of the household chores without any help from Ray who was constantly
drunk. He always found issues to scream at Soi for and was physically abusive. He would also act intrusive
whenever Soi talked to other people. When Soi managed to save up enough money to build a new home, Ray
would intentionally dirty up the house by walking around with muddy shoes or using the curtains to wipe
his nose and mouth. However, the one thing that weighed her down the most was having to sleep on thesame bed as Ray each night since Ray always stank of alcohol. Whenever Soi refused to sleep with him, Ray
would flare-up and start screaming at Soi that she was disgusted by him, kicking her around, or pulling her
hair. One time, Ray woke up in the middle of the night and found that Soi was not next to him. In a fit ofanger, he pulled the quilt down from the bed and started stabbing at it with the knife he kept under the bed.
Ray burnt the ruined quilt the next morning in the Longan field.1
This cycle kept on being repeated for over 23 years. There were many times when Soi wanted to run
away but Ray threatened that he would find her and kill her if she ever did. In the end, Soi managed to* Provincial Public Prosecutor, Office of the Attorney General of Thailand.
1
Napaporn Hawanon, Testimonies of Battered Women, p. 28-45.

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escape but Ray followed her and pled with her to return to him, promising in front of his entire family that
he would turn over a new leaf. Ray managed to quit drinking and they were able to live peacefully together
for two months until one day they got into a minor argument. Ray kept Soi in a headlock and held a 3-inch
knife to her stomach while saying that he was going to kill her today and himself afterwards. Soi calmed Ray
down by talking about their child until Ray put away the knife. Soi knew then that either Ray would haveto die, or she would die. That evening, Soi went out to buy gloves and a tarp. She secretly prepared the tarp
under the bedsheets before going to bed. Once she was sure that Ray had fallen asleep, Soi stabbed him withthe very knife that Ray had threatened her with earlier in the day. Soi was charged with premeditatedmurder and received a death sentence for her crimes. However, since Soi confessed to the crime, the court
reduced her sentence to 25 years in prison.
What points do you see from these three different cases?

I. CRIMES MOTIVATED BY GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN THAILAND,
FOCUSING ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
The study released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on the International Day
for the Elimination of Violence against Women last year on 25 November 2018 revealed that a total of 87,000
women were killed worldwide in 2017 and 58 percent of those female victims were killed at the hands of
intimate partners or family members.2 The regions with the largest number of female victims killed byintimate partners and family members were Asia (20,000 women), followed by Africa (19,000 women).3
In principle, common elements of all crimes consist of (1) a voluntary act (“actus reus”); (2) a culpable
intent (“mens rea”); (3) concurrence between the mens rea and the actus reus; and (4) causation of harm. To
determine whether the defendant is guilty or not, the criminal justice personnel would concentrate only on
the moment the crimes occurred. Therefore, most official records collected by the criminal justice organizationneglect to include data on history or relationship between victim and offender as well as the motivation tocommit a crime if such factors do not relate to an aggravated offence or a mitigated sentence. Thus, it isarguable whether the main drivers of the crimes are related to gender.
However, in the case of female victims of violence, it is well accepted that gender discrimination lies at
the root of the crimes. According to the statement of the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, “...
violence against women and girls is the manifestation of a profound lack of respect – a failure by men torecognize the inherent equality and dignity of women ... Violence against women is tied to broader issuesof power and control in our societies. We live in a male-dominated society. Women are made vulnerable
to violence through the multiple ways in which we keep them unequal ...”4 The UNODC Executive Director
Yury Fedotov also expressed his concern that, “While the vast majority of homicide victims are men, womencontinue to pay the highest price as a result of gender inequality, discrimination and negative stereotypes.”5
Violence against women is defined in the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, andreiterated in various international instruments including the Updated Model Strategies and Practical
Measures on the Elimination of Violence against Women in the field of Crime Prevention and Criminal
Justice, to mean any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or
psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivationof liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.6

2

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Global Study on Homicide 2018 (Vienna, 2018) <https://www.unodc.
org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/global-study-on-homicide.html> accessed 8 Jan. 2019.
3
Ibid.
4
United Nations, Antonio Guterres, Remarks on International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (19 November2018) <https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2018-11-19/international-day-elimination-violence-against-womenremarks> accessed 8 Jan. 2019.
5
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), UNODC press release (25 November 2018) <https://www.unodc.org/
unodc/en/press/releases/2018/November/home--the-most-dangerous-place-for-women--with-majority-of-female-homicide-victimsworldwide-killed-by-partners-or-family--unodc-study-says.html> accessed 8 Jan. 2019.
6
General Assembly resolution 65/228, annex, para. 2.

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In Thailand, the male dominant attitude is still pervasive in society. There is a commonly known phrasethat “A man is the front legs of an elephant” which implies that male always leads the way. This manifests
the problem of structural inequalities of power. It has been deeply cultivated in Thai culture that a man is
the leader of the family whereas a woman shall behave as a good wife by taking care of family and the housechores. All these beliefs make a man feel that he holds power over a woman and can act in any way towards
to his female partner in exerting his dominance.
Considering the information revealed by a UNICEF-supported study on Comprehensive Sexuality
Education in 2017 which found that 41 percent of male vocational school students believed that a husband isentitled to beat up his wife if he found that she is unfaithful to him,7 male superiority is a problematic
attitude that is deeply rooted in the society.
According to the study on Thai women’s experiences of and responses to domestic violence published in
the International Journal of Women’s Health in 2018, about 16% of the 1,444 married or cohabiting women
faced various forms of violence from their male partner, often repeatedly in most cases.8 Previously, there
was also a survey on domestic violence and violence against women that was carried out from January 27
to February 2, 2017 by the Women and Men Progressive Movement Foundation (WMP). There were 1,608
female respondents aged between 17 and 40 from various levels of education and occupations in Bangkok
and its outskirts. The survey revealed that in terms of attitude towards love, 76.8% of respondents said
women must have a monogamous relationship, 47.9% said men are family leaders, 43.3% said wives or
girlfriends must obey and pay attention to their partners.9

II. LEGISLATIVE DEVELOPMENT CONCERNING CRIMES MOTIVATED BY
GENDER DISCRIMINATION
The male dominant attitude and the view that women become the property of their husbands can be seen
generally even in Thai legislation. The Penal Code of Thailand was promulgated in 1956 (B.E. 2499). At thattime, the offence of rape was provided in section 276 of the Penal Code, stating that “Whoever has sexualintercourse with a woman, who is not his wife, against her will, by threatening by any means whatever, by
doing any act of violence, by taking advantage of the woman being in the condition of inability to resist, orby causing the woman to mistake him for the other person, shall be punished with imprisonment for four totwenty years and a fine of eight thousand to forty thousand Baht”. Thus, the Thai law at that time allowed
a husband to rape his wife with impunity. It sent a message that if a woman got married, she instantly loses
her right to refuse to have sexual intercourse with her husband.
This section in the Penal Code was amended by the Penal Code Amendment Act (No.19) B.E. 2550 (2007)
with the reason given in the promulgation of the Act that section 276 of the Penal Code B.E. 2499 was drafted
based on sexual discrimination and needed to be amended in order to be in line with the principles of equality
between men and women that do not discriminate against sexual orientation. The Act removed the previous
distinction under section 276 of the Penal Code which had limited rape to sexual intercourse between a man
and a woman who is not his wife and expanded the definition of rape to cover all sexes and all types of sexual
penetration. Therefore, at present, marital rape is criminalized in Thailand and the offender could besentenced to a term of imprisonment for four to twenty years and a fine of eighty thousand baht to four
hundred thousand baht. However, if the spouses still intended to live with each other as a married couple
after the crime, the Court may reduce the sentence to any extent below that prescribed by law or may
impose any additional condition to control the behaviour of the offender.
Thailand does not have a specific offence for gender-related murder while some countries have termed
an act of killing women because they are women as “femicide” or “feminicide”. Thailand has also not adopted
7

Bangkok Post, Sex education falling short, Unicef finds (1 June 2017) <https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1260046/
sex-education-falling-short-unicef-finds> accessed 8 Jan. 2019.
8
Dovepress, Thai Women’s experiences of and responses to domestic violence (2018)<https://www.dovepress.com/thai-womens-experiences-of-and-responses-to-domestic-violence-peer-reviewed-article-IJWH> accessed
8 Jan. 2019.
9
Bangkok Post, Violence against women in Thailand, a survey (11 Feb. 2017) <https://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/
advanced/1198332/violence-against-women-in-thailand-a-survey> accessed 8 Jan 2019.

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an approach of establishing gender-related motivation as an aggravating factor for criminal offence. The
crime motivated by gender-discrimination in Thailand is treated as a normal crime under the law. However,with the view that domestic violence contains special factors which are different from ordinary cases ofphysical assault, the enforcement of a criminal offence under the Criminal Code alone is inappropriate.
Therefore, the Domestic Violence Victim Protection Act of B.E. 2550 (2007) was promulgated to protect
victims of domestic violence and to punish the perpetrators while providing various measures for the
rehabilitation of the perpetrators. The Act established a domestic violence offence punishable by a term of
imprisonment not exceeding six months or a fine not exceeding six thousand baht, or both. The Court mayorder an offender to pay financial assistance to the victim and direct the offender to refrain from the actsthat gave rise to domestic violence. Another important point is that domestic violence under this law is acompoundable offence where the offender and victim can negotiate and settle the case without going to trial.
However, where there is settlement, the inquiry officer or the Court, whichever the case maybe, shallarrange to have an initial settlement record made prior to such settlement in order to impose conditions forcompliance. Later, if the offender violates or does not comply with such settlement record, the inquiry officer
or the Court is able to resume the case again.
Table 1 Statistics on violence cases, classified by charge and the relationship between the perpetrator andthe victim for the fiscal year 2018 (1 Oct 2017- 30 Sept 2018)

Type of Charge
1. Violence against life,
body, and mind

Relationship between perpetrator and victim
CommonExlaw
Adopted Family
Spouse spouse partner Children
child
member Dependent
56

12

28

23

4

33

2

2. Sexual Violence

-

-

-

1

-

1

2

3. Violence against freedom

-

-

1

-

-

-

-

4. Violence against health
5. Social Violence(negligence, abandonment,
etc.)

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Total

56

12

29

24

4

34

4

Remarks: In some cases, there is more than one perpetrator or victim.
Source: Office of the Attorney General of Thailand

Table 2 Statistics on violence cases, classified by charge. Cases classified by age and perpetrator’s gender,
age and victim’s gender for the fiscal year 2018 (1 Oct 2017- 30 Sept 2018)
AmountType of Charge

perpetrator’s age
between 0 - 18 years
oldperpetrator’s age
above 18 years old

victim’s age between victim’s age above 18
0 - 18 years oldyears oldMale

FemaleMale

FemaleMale

FemaleMale

Female1. Violence against life, body, and
mind

1

-

138

13

9

10

18

122

2. Sexual Violence

1

-

1

-

2

-

-

3. Violence against freedom

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

4. Violence against health

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

5. Social Violenceabandonment, etc.)

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

2

-

139

13

12

18

122

Total

(negligence,

Remarks: In some cases, there is more than one perpetrator or victim.
Source: Office of the Attorney General of Thailand

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From the above statistics, we can see that those who are/were intimate partners, whether spouses, exspouses, or common law partners, make up the majority of people who commit violence against each other.
Moreover, when Table 1 is compared to Table 2, we can see that in the majority of cases, men often
perpetrate violence against women (91.56% of cases were committed by men).

III. CHALLENGES OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESPONSE TO WOMENEXPERIENCING CRIMES MOTIVATED BY GENDER DISCRIMINATION
A. Women as Victims of Crime
Despite various surveys demonstrating that a high percentage of women around the world have sufferedfrom violence, cases of violence against women that survive to trial were fewer in number. It is a fact inevery country that violence against women is underreported to authorities. Many factors are accountable forthis phenomenon. For female victims of violence, speaking up and reporting the incident to an official isalways the most difficult first step to take. For many reasons, some women may also face the dilemma ofwhether they should report a crime of violence committed by their intimate partners to the police. The
worst factor is that these female victims do not see any benefit in reporting the crime because they knowthat they will not receive the help they really need.
In cases of domestic violence, many police officers still see it as a private issue or an internal family affair
and therefore are reluctant to intervene at the early stages or even process the complaint as is normallydone when a case of another nature is reported. There are also repeat cases wherein the women werebattered by their intimate partners on a regular basis. Whenever they went to report the criminal incident
to the police, the police would only conduct a mediation between the offender and the victim and drop thecomplaint. While the couple may agree to live together again, there would be no happily ever after in mostcases.
Moreover, in the case where a woman’s complaint survives to become an investigated case file that goesto trial in court, the insensitive process of the criminal justice system seems to unintentionally revictimize
the female victim. The process requires the victims to tell their stories repetitively to different officers ineach and every stage of the criminal procedure, forcing the victims to recall their tragic memories and sufferfrom such feelings over and over again. Some questions about the victims’ behaviour or provocation of crime
can make the victims feel even worse and begin considering that it might be their fault that the crime
happened, not the perpetrator’s.
Considering the fact that violence against women is a silent crime, occurring between two intimate
partners, it is difficult to find another witness besides the victim herself at the crime scene. If the victims do
not want to testify in court because they do not want to confront the defendant, or if the victims died as aresult of the crimes, the Courts would rule that there were not enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable
doubt that the defendants have committed the crimes. Even if the Courts found the defendants guilty of thecrimes, the defendants would be able to make an uncontested claim of provocation or self-defence to reduce
their sentence, as demonstrated in the second case example earlier. Impunity for perpetrators usually
happens in the case of domestic violence.
B. Women as Criminal Offenders Caused by Being Abused in the Past
There is also the aspect that women who were the victims of domestic violence become the defendants
on trial for the murder of their abusive partners. When women who have been brutally abused for a longtime rise up to fight back, believing that to be the only way they could protect themselves against the neverending abuse, most of them are often subject to legal penalties without being able to receive a reduced
sentence by the law. The legal principle of self-defence often cannot be applied in such cases where thedanger of the situation may not be generally considered as imminent. Moreover, due to having less physicalstrength, women tend to use a weapon in committing their crimes. This is considered an aggravating factor
that will result in harsher punishment.
In this regard, the Updated Model Strategies and Practical Measures on the Elimination of Violenceagainst Women in the field of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice urges the Member States to ensurethat claims of self-defence by women who have been victims of violence, particularly in cases of batteredwoman syndrome, are taken into account in investigations, prosecutions and sentences against them.
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Moreover, psychologists confirmed that the mental state of women who were repeatedly traumatized bytheir loved ones is different from women who have never undergone such experiences. Nevertheless, inpractice, the way in which criminal justice officers apply the concept of ‘self-defence’ in the case of previously
abused female offenders does not differ from general standards in other cases.
This is similar to the scenario in case number three where Soi, who had patiently endured everything foryears, decided to do something to protect her life. Nobody in the criminal justice system had paid attention
or even asked about her motivation for killing Ray. The question remains as to whether or not what Soi had
experienced for almost 23 years before the day that she murdered Ray matters in the eye of the criminal
justice system. Her case did not even qualify for a claim of self-defence, necessity or even provocation to
help mitigate the sentence.

IV. THAILAND’ S INTEGRATED EFFORTS TO OVERCOME THE CHALLENGES
A. Legislation
Even though the substantive law of Thailand is quite comprehensive to criminalize all acts of violenceagainst women, gender-insensitive judicial process is another challenge for the effective prosecution andpunishment of perpetrators of violence against women. There is still room for improvement in the procedural
law of Thailand regarding the procedures for investigating the case, collecting the evidence, as well as
admitting evidence in court. Currently, the Office of the Attorney General is considering proposing anamendment to the Criminal Procedure Code of Thailand so that in cases of sexuality-related offences, theinquiry officer shall arrange an appropriate examination place for the female victim/witness and shall prepare
an image and voice recorder for recording such examinations and they shall be used as admissible evidence
in court. This proposed amendment is in line with the Updated Model Strategies and Practical Measures on
the Elimination of Violence against Women in the field of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, Section
15(c), according to which Member States are urged to update their criminal procedures to ensure thatwomen subjected to violence are enabled to testify in criminal proceedings through adequate measures thatfacilitate such testimony by protecting privacy, identity and dignity of the women; ensure safety during legal
proceeding; and avoid “secondary victimization.”10
B. Raising Awareness and Changing People’s Mindset, Especially Law Enforcement
When cases of domestic abuse, sexual assault, and rape against women are reported, many times we willhear victim-blaming criticism such as she dressed or expressed herself inappropriately, the place she went
was isolated, the job she had was misleading, etc., which has the tendency to place the blame for the crimeon the victim rather than the perpetrator. Elimination of violence against women requires true understandingof the issues and the right mindset of people in the criminal justice system. Referring to the first caserecounted from my experiences with prosecution work, the reason given by the trial court to reduce thesentence and to suspend the punishment imposed on a defendant shows that the Court did not understandthe psychological impact inflicted on the woman caused by the defendant who was her ex-husband. This
psychological damage is huge and cannot be compensated quickly. That is why the Court considered only
the monetary value of the damage. Cases like this are not unusual. Therefore, no matter how good the law
is, if law enforcement does not understand the deeply rooted issue of power inequality between men andwomen, and have the correct attitudes towards gender discrimination, it is impossible to effectively enforce
the law.
Thailand has been actively campaigning to raise awareness to end violence against women since 2008
when Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol graciously accepted the position of Goodwill
Ambassador for the Say No to Violence against Women initiative in Thailand. In 2010, under the leadershipof Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol, 622,189 actions taken by Thai individuals to end
violence against women were recorded as part of the UN Secretary General’s Campaign, UNITE to End
Violence against Women. Since 2012, the Office of the Attorney General has joined hands with the Police
Cadet Academy in organizing training workshops for young police cadets on the nature, extent, andseriousness of violence against women crimes and how the police have played a crucial role to end thisproblem. With the belief that such training would help shape the mindset of those who will become police
officers in the near future, such training has been organized annually. The Office of the Attorney General also
10

General Assembly resolution 65/228, annex, para. 15 (c)54171ST INTERNATIONAL SENIOR SEMINAR
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conducts regular trainings and workshops for prosecutors at various levels on the issue of violence against
women.
C. Providing a Mechanism for Access to Justice
It is undeniable that insufficient access to justice is the main obstacle to the effective protection of thevictim and punishment of the offender. In order to begin the legal process, the first stage that female victimsof violence usually have to undergo is to report their cases to the police. Unfortunately, this simple process
appears to be very difficult for the victims who have been frightened for a long time and who question
whether the justice system can help them live better lives without violence or whether they can even reachthe justice system at all. The information regarding what they will be facing in entering to the world of thecriminal justice system, what rights they have under the law, and what will happen with their children etc.,
are necessary for female victims to make an informed decision throughout the process.
We currently live in a world of technological advances. We talk about many disruptive technologies thatchange the way we live our daily lives. It might be time to think of innovating the justice system in order tocontribute to a safe environment for female victims to feel more comfortable in coming forwards. In Thailand,
there is an effort to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to compliment the conventional way to access justice. The
development of the AI chat bot project, called “Police Noi”, which means little police is one interesting
example. Police Noi is a computer programme that was designed to give friendly answers to questions
relating to violence against women in all aspects, ranging from medical treatment to preliminary legal
counselling and includes providing the contacts of various related agencies from which help can be sought.
Without having to come face to face with an unknown person, the victims of violence can talk and ask anyquestions including the legal process and its consequences before making a decision whether to report thecase to the police. Moreover, the possibility that the AI chat bot can communicate with people through LINE
and Facebook allows people to interact with Police Noi in a way that is similar to communicating with a real
person. Therefore, Police Noi also serves as a lively platform that female victims can talk and tell stories towithout fear of getting judgmental responses from the neutral AI. This is one instance where technology canovercome the inequalities or forms of discrimination that women face in accessing the justice system. This
is in line with the target of Sustainable Development Goal 16, which aims to provide equal access to justicefor all.
Violence against women is not an emerging crime but it is a crime that occurs in conjunction with the
deeply rooted unequal power relations between men and women. Discriminatory attitudes of people insociety as well as law enforcement officers cannot be changed over a short period of time. However, if westart doing whatever we can to end this gender-bias-motivated violence today, future women all over theworld can surely enjoy their lives without violence.

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