Tuesday, September 26 2006 16:33 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: Actions taken by Thailand's Council for Democratic Reform under Constitutional Monarchy (CDRM) after the coup have contravened human rights conventions, said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The military-led coup that overthrew a democratically elected government in Thailand last week "raised important human rights concerns", Louise Arbour said Monday in a statement issued from her Geneva office. Arbour urged CDRM, the military council that now governs the country until new elections, "to ensure respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and reinstate the country's human rights commission". She said CDRM has unconstitutionally replaced an elected government, imposed martial law, abolished the 1997 constitution, dissolved parliament and cabinet as well as the constitutional court. Other decrees issued by CDRM restrict a number of basic human rights, including right to freedom of assembly, opinion and expression, and freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention. Arbour called on CDRM "to restore the maximum exercise of these rights". The military council disbanded the National Human Rights Council even though the country is party to a number of international human rights conventions, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the UN said.