; Whereas the 2016 referendum was marred by widespread violations of rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly; Whereas the NCPO ignored numerous calls from the United Nations and foreign governments to respect people’s rights to freely express their views on the draft constitution, and sharply curtailed freedoms in the lead-up to the constitutional referendum, prosecuting journalists and critics of the draft constitution, censoring the media, and preventing public gatherings of more than five people; Whereas the new Constitution, which was ratified on April 6, 2017— (1) entrenched Thai military power at the expense of civilian political control; (2) obligated subsequent governments and members of parliament to adhere to a junta-issued 20-year reform plan ; (3) contains provisions weakening the 500-member lower house and reserving 250 seats in the Senate for NCPO-appointed senators and NCPO leaders, including the top leadership of the military and police; and (4) gives outsize power to unelected junta-selected senators to choose subsequent prime ministers; Whereas, in March 2019, Thailand held elections that— (1) several independent monitoring groups, citing both procedural and systemic problems, declared to be not fully free and fair and heavily tilted to favor the military junta; and (2) resulted in the NCPO’s political party, headed by Prayuth Chan-ocha, forming a new government and appointing Prayuth as prime minister; Whereas, in January 2020, the opposition political party Future Forward was dissolved and banned on order of Thailand's Constitutional Court following a flawed legal process premised on spurious charges; Whereas the Constitutional Court also ruled that Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha did not violate a constitutional provision limiting him to 8 years in office, despite having remained in power since the August 2014 coup d’état