Part 1 Assessment of Rights and Liberties according to the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand, B.E. 2560 (2017) The Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand, B.E. 2560 (2017), which has been put into effect since the 6 April 2017, recognizes and protects basic human rights of individual persons in Chapter I General Provisions, and in Chapter III, recognizes rights and liberties of the Thai people in addition to the rights and liberties as guaranteed specifically by the provisions in the Constitution, a person shall enjoy the rights and liberties to perform any act which is not prohibited or restricted by the Constitution or other laws, and shall be protected by the Constitution, insofar as the exercise of such rights or liberties does not affect or endanger the security of the State or public order or good morals, and does not violate the rights or liberties of other persons. Reviewing the previous Constitutions, it was found that some rights prescribed the Chapter about rights and liberties were not really put into practices, certain rights and liberties are therefore provided in the Chapter V Duties of the State, so that these rights are put into practices by providing them to be the duty of the State, the people and the community shall have the right to follow up and urge the State to perform such act, as well as to take legal proceedings against a relevant State agency to have it provide the people or community such benefit in accordance with the rules and procedures provided by law. Additions were then made to the Chapter Duties of the State to guarantee that the State must act according to the provisions of the Constitution, so that rights of the people to benefit from the State are really in effect. The Chapter on Duties of the State is an important principle and it is necessary for the State to completely put them in practice appropriately, depending on monetary and financial status of the country. Moreover, there is Chapter XVI on National Reform to eliminate conflicts and reduce disparity in society by providing that the enactment of the law under paragraph one and the promulgation thereof shall be executed within one hundred and twenty days from the date of promulgation of this Constitution, and the implementation of each area of reform shall commence within one year from the date of promulgation of this Constitution. Comparing the Constitutions of the Kingdom of Thailand, B.E. 2540 (1997) and B.E. 2550 (2007) with the present one, it was found that although rights had existed before emergence of the State and the State had the duty to respect, protect and fulfil with putting these rights into practices, as efforts were made by the current administration to create various rights, the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand B.E. 2560 (2017) therefore has provisions to make rights created by the State more important. Even if the 2017 Constitution has provisions to distribute power and administration to micro level and requires the Council of Ministers to declare its policies to the Parliament in line with the Duty of the State, policies of the State and National Strategies, eligible voters, totaling no less than 10,000 in number, could propose new laws according to the Chapter on Rights and Liberties of the Thai people or the Chapter on Duty of the State. However, to make promotion and protection of human rights a reality and sustainable, it is necessary to have processes to promote and guarantee that the people as the rights holders could really participate in these processes. th 34 | รายงานผลการประเมินสถานการณ์ด้านสิทธิมนุษยชนของประเทศไทย ปี ๒๕๖๐