Montri has been pushing for legal reforms to better protect children's rights. Until recently, Thai laws on child rights were weak and ineffective, based on two outdated orders issued by the Thanom-Prapas military regime in 1972.

In recent years, laws have been strengthened to increase penalties against sexual exploitation of the young. The new laws target customers, procurers, pimps and owners and operators of brothels, as well as parents who sell their children into prostitution. They ease restrictions on the police, making it easier for them to enter and search suspected brothels and make arrests.

Montri has been working to overturn a law that requires children to have proof of a permanent address in order to legally attend school, which makes it difficult for children of migrant workers to get an education. He also has been working to make it legal for citizen sector organizations to intervene in child abuse cases.

Montri has pushed the government to adopt a policy that establishes and supports small, local citizen-based organizations throughout the country that monitor against child abuse and provide assistance to abused children and families. He is helping these organizations and citizens to coordinate their efforts with police departments.

Finally, Montri has been working to pass laws that protect child victims and witnesses in legal actions. Until recently, total control of investigations by police made it easy for money to change hands, leading to out-of-court settlements. Police interrogations often traumatized victims, making it difficult for them to testify. Many children abandoned their court cases out of fear or bribery since the offenders were often relatives or people of a higher status.

Last September, Thailand's Criminal Procedures Code was amended to protect child victims and witnesses against intimidation in court cases, and to prevent the use of bribery and other forms of pressure. The new law includes the following requirements:

• Interrogation must be held within 24 hours to get accurate information and reduce the opportunities for intimidation or bribery.

• Four people must be present during questioning for children under 18: a prosecutor, a social welfare officer, psychiatrist or psychologist, the investigating police officer, and a person of the child's choosing. After questioning, the police, the prosecutor, and the social welfare officer must sign their names to authenticate the story (making it harder for suspects to bribe their way out of trouble because they would have to bribe all three persons.) The social welfare officer, not the police, asks the questions. The presence of a prosecutor is to avoid repeated questioning, and to enable the prosecutor to make a strong case against the offender

• The interrogation must be captured on videotape that can submitted as evidence in court – a written record of oral evidence is not sufficient. This prevents suppression or doctoring of evidence, and provides a record in the case a child victim or witness attempts to retract their statement or fails to appear in court, due to intimidation.

• A separate room must be provided that is not as intimidating as the ordinary police interrogation room. It must be equipped with one-way mirrors to eliminate intimidation during line-ups, and to permit inobtrusive videotaping of the victim's statements.

• Child victims or witnesses must be kept in a separate room equipped with a closed-circuit camera, rather than being cross-examined directly in court. This protects them from facing the offender in court. Questions are addressed to either a psychologist or social welfare officer in the room who repeats the questions to the witness.

• The new law allows witnesses to be questioned in advance of court appearances to avoid witness intimidation if the case drags on.