Abstract

The concept of transitional justice has been widely discussed inThailand following the massacre of the Red Shirt protesters in 2010, whichresulted in the highest death toll resulting from a military action againstpolitical protestors in Thai history. The eighth anniversary of that tragedyoffers an opportunity to analyse Thailand’s response to the use of militaryviolence against these political activists. This analysis is performed throughthe application of the seven conceptual components of transitional justice:regime change, finding truth, prosecution, security sector reform, victimscenteredness,reparation, and memorialization. The current study is based onan analysis of various textual sources, such as books, journal articles, newsarticles, online sources, and other documents. The evidence shows that in thecase of Thailand, as in other countries, if the first component, regime change, isnot realised such that the authoritarian regime is replaced by one that is civilianand democratic, then justice for past violence can never be established. As aresult, the remaining six components of transitional justice in Thailand havebeen applied in a distorted and incorrect manner in the past eight years.