DSI, Ministry of Justice and Department of Provincial Administration join forces to assist a stateless woman far gone in pregnancy

DSI, Ministry of Justice and Department of Provincial Administration join forces to assist a stateless woman far gone in pregnancy

       The DSI received notifications from the Legal Status Network for Western Region, a civil society organization assisting stateless persons, about a 23-year old, 8 months pregnant woman named Nattawan and her 2 brothers as the stateless persons residing in a house (with no house number) in Ang Hin Subdistrict, Pak Tho District, Ratchaburi Province. The three persons notified that their mother did not register their births making Nattawan and her 2 brothers could complete only the 3^rd year at primary school. In the past, they received assistance for school admission from a former Village Headman. They are only literate, not able to access to the educational system for further study, due to the lack of their birth certificates and ID cards. Nattawan, the 8 months pregnant woman, who is nearly giving birth but has no money for the DNA testing, worries that her soon-to-be-born child will not get his/her rights.

       Today, on Wednesday, June 8, 2022, Mr. Triyarith Temahivong (the Director-General of the DSI) ordered Mr. Angsuket Visuthvattanasak (Head of Office of Special Case Interdisciplinary), Mr. Theerapat Kaewchunan (Deputy Director of Bureau of Policy and Strategy), and the working group for the project to provide justice to stateless persons, to coordinate with Pak Tho District for the facts, to cooperate with the Central Institute of Forensic Science for travelling to collect DNA in order to prove the blood relation of the three children and their mother. If they are related by blood, the Pak Tho District will certify the person’s status of the three persons for being entitled to the rights as the general Thai people, which leads to the rights to public health, education, social welfare, skill development, employment, and government welfare.

       As there are problems of human rights, stateless persons and disparity in the society of Thailand, Mr. Somsak Thepsuthin (the Minister of Justice) has been prioritizing these problems and driving the policy “Justice Builds Happiness” continuously since October 2019 to solve such problems and minimize the trouble of the public. The DSI therefore took the concept of the policy “Justice Builds Happiness” in consideration to solve the problems of people, who are in trouble from being stateless persons, human rights violations and the disparity, by integrating its working with the Department of Provincial Administration, the Central Institute of Forensic Science, and the Non-governmental Organization, to solve the said problems and build opportunities to access to the nationality identification process of the stateless people.