Globalization and Restorative Justice: in the Thai Criminal Justice System

Jutharat Ua-amnoey*

A feature television program on channel 11, called "VisaitudKodmai-thai" or "Thai vision on Legal Matters," is the third strategy in this movement. On the second and fourth Friday of every month from 11:05 to 12:00 am, people around the country can learn about interesting and timely issues from ranking officers in the criminal justice system and from scholars in academic fields as well.

The promotion of research projects and articles on restorative justice in the Thai society is the fourth strategy of the movement. Some research projects are supported by TRF, while others are dissertations from both law schools and the field of criminal justice.

As a result of these publicized strategies, it took only two yeas for restorative justice to become recognized in Thailand and this was the springboard for government interest in this new measure for victims, offenders, and communities.

The Result of the Movement: Paradigm Shift in the Thai Criminal Justice
On 10 February 2004, the Cabinet accepted the First National Master Plan of Criminal Justice 2004-2007, which contains the Restorative Justice Programs Plan in its Sixth Strategy, "the Strategy to Promote Conciliation and Diversion from Criminal Justice System. " This is the first time in Thailand's history that a "National Master Plan of Criminal Justice" has been adopted, and is also the first time that Restorative Justice has been incorporated into the Plan and into the mainstream criminal justice system as well. It seems, then, that the Thai government is willing to use restorative justice in the criminal justice system.

The Restorative Justice in Thai Praxis
In 2003, the Department of Juvenile Observation and Protection launched the Family Community Group Conferencing project, which is a measure of restorative justice, for the first time. By using the Juvenile Delinquency Act 2534, Article 63, together with the decision of the prosecutors, 1,972 cases were deferred to restorative justice. The results showed that the prosecutors were able to defer 1,160 cases from the mainstream court system and only had to bring 30 cases to trial (Matichon Newspaper, June 6, 2004). This output shows that 10% of the juvenile delinquents can learn to show their responsibly to amend their victims through the restorative justice progress and be removed from the juvenile court system.

In 2004, the Department of Probation launched a restorative justice program by the victim-offender mediation model. This pilot project is in place for the eleven area offices around the country that will have some output in the upcoming annual budget year. Because of the limitation of the Criminal Code, probation officers can use restorative justice only for the pre-investigation stage in the trial process. So, there is now a movement to amend the law and to propose legislation for diversion at the prosecution stage.

It can be now said that this social phenomenon, that of restorative justice has come to the end of its long journey into the Thai criminal justice system. Restorative justice programs have been initiated in some offices, which is the beginning of empowering crime victims and the communities that have neglected for more than a hundred years.

7. Conclusion

To study the rise of restorative justice in Thailand is to look at how the causes and consequences affected the development of restorative justice in the Thai criminal justice system and in society generally. Therefore, I have developed and used a theoretical frame
work. "The Journey of Restorative Justice from the international Community to the Thai State, Society, and Criminal Justice System, "
to explain this matter. Influential factors can be grouped as both outside-in and inside-out factors.

The outside-in effect comes from: 1) the international system or state system that defines the United Nations activities through UN Crime Congresses every five years; 2) the non-profit international organizations or global civil societies that are behind the global movement for restorative justice and the network of NGOs that pushed their governments and the United Nations to pay attention to crime victims, and communities by adopting the use of restorative justice in mainstream criminal justice systems, and 3) the change agents for the Thai criminal justice system who attended the United Nations' Congress and met with experts and who then decided to adopt the ideal of restorative justice in Thailand.