He said UN member countries were required to submit a human rights report to the council every four years. This year’s meeting in Geneva is scheduled on Wednesday.

Chanchao said he would lead the delegates in reading the country’s 21-page human rights report during a three-hour session. Representatives from the public sector, which has a wider scope of activities than non-governmental organisations, will read about 10 pages of the report.

Human rights specialists and independent human rights activists will then read their own 10-page report.

“The human rights report by the three parties will not be conducted in a hostile questioning atmosphere, [with] no verdict, no winners or losers, and no passing or not passing. The questions will focus on human rights development in our country over the past four years. We will encourage suggestions and comments to correct or improve the situation and then report back to the UN in the next four years,” he said.

Chanchao said the content to be read by representatives from Thailand would cover human rights of various groups including labourers as well as rights to access the justice system, health-related rights, freedom of expression and the death penalty.

Meanwhile, Chanchao said the Department of Corrections was planning to buy scanners to scan female inmates at the Central Women Correctional Institution after the government allocated Bt60 million for the acquisition. The scanners are meant to reduce human rights abuse allegations arising from manual body searches.

He said certain types of body searches, like the touching of legs and arms, would still be required. Cavity searches will be conducted only if scanners detect suspicious or illegal items.

“Body searches must not be conducted in a manner that is deemed perverting, assaulting or harassing,” he said.