Volume 139, Issue 28A
Royal Gazette
7 May 2565
Note: The grounds for promulgation of this Act are as follows: At present, the Penal Code designates the age of not over ten years as the criterion on the age of the child who is not required to undergo punishment despite having committed an act which the law prescribes to be an offence. However, it is found from medical data that twelve-year-old children are not much different from ten-year-old children, as the cognitive, intelligent, and ethical development and the sense of conscience [of children in this] age range are still not fully grown, thus causing them to still be unable to well enough conjecture the outcome which may arise from their action. In addition, children whose age is [still] not over twelve years are in school for primary education [and] should not be pressed into the process of criminal prosecution, which involves certain procedures that are likely to affect personal rights and liberties and likely to furnish the children with further knowledge about the methods of committing offences to the point of potentially leading to [their] relapse into offences. This being the case, [and] with the highest benefit of children having been taken into account, it is appropriate to put into application the measures under the law on child protection, so that the provision of assistance [to] and the protection of rights and welfare of children whose age is [more than] ten years but still not than twelve years would be enabled to achieve better outcomes and the children would further be enabled to reform themselves and return to the society as [good] quality [members of] the population. Moreover, [changing] the designation of the criterion on the age of the child who is not required to undergo punishment despite having committed an act which the law prescribes to be an offence from the age of not over ten years to the age of not over twelve years would be in line with the General Comment No. 10 (2007): Children's Rights in Juvenile Justice, which has been issued in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and which Thailand has, of its own choice, accepted and promised to follow, subject to the mechanism of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), second cycle (2554 BE to 2563 BE). Therefore, it is necessary to enact this Act.
