Protecting The Mental Health Rights of Children and Youth Under Thai Law
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Abstract
The mental health of children and youth is a crucial component of well-being and human development, with significant implications for both human rights protection and the State’s obligation to provide public services. This academic article aims to: explain the meaning and scope of the right to mental health of children and youth; analyze the legal protection of this right under Thai law; and propose legal and policy measures to enhance the effectiveness of such protection. Using a documentary research method, the study analyzes relevant Thai laws, including the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand B.E. 2561, the Child Protection Act B.E. 2546, the Mental Health Act B.E. 2551, the National Education Act B.E. 2542, and the Personal Data Protection Act B.E. 2562. These legal analyses are complemented by a review of international human rights frameworks and academic literature related to child and adolescent mental health.
The findings reveal that the right to mental health of children and youth includes the right to a supportive mental environment, systemic prevention and promotion, and continuous access to age-appropriate care. The scope of this right also extends to the right to privacy regarding mental health information. Although the Thai legal system recognizes the right to health and child welfare at the level of general legal principles and provides certain mechanisms for protecting individuals with mental health conditions, the recognition of children’s and youths’ mental health rights remains fragmented across several legal instruments. Such recognition has not yet evolved into a coherent rights-based framework with clearly defined normative components and minimum standards of protection. In addition, structural gaps are identified in areas such as mental health promotion and prevention within educational institutions, inter-agency coordination among state authorities, and practical guidelines for safeguarding children’s mental health data. These limitations contribute to inconsistencies and inequalities in the practical protection of mental health rights.
The article therefore proposes the development of legal mechanisms to clearly define the components of children’s mental health rights, establish minimum service standards in educational institutions, implement systematic screening and referral mechanisms, and strengthen institutional coordination among the education, public health, and social welfare sectors. Such reforms would help ensure that the protection of children’s and youths’ mental health rights is effectively realized in practice in accordance with the principle of the best interests of the child.
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This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which allows others to share the article with proper attribution to the authors and prohibits commercial use or modification. For any other reuse or republication, permission from the journal and the authors is required.References
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