Thailand is close to introducing chemical castration as a means to tackle sex crimes after lawmakers approved a bill that will give some offenders the right to choose the procedure in return for a reduced prison sentence.

The bill, which the lower house passed in March, was approved late on Monday by 145 senators, with two abstentions. It requires another house vote, then royal endorsement.

Of 16,413 convicted sex offenders released from Thai prisons between 2013 and 2020, 4,848 reoffended, according to corrections department figures.

Under the bill, certain sex offenders deemed at risk of reoffending may be given the option to receive injections that reduce their testosterone levels in return for shorter jail time, providing they have approval from two doctors.

The offenders would be monitored for 10 years and required to wear electronic monitoring bracelets, according to the bill.

If approved, Thailand would join a small group of countries that use chemical castration, among them Poland, South Korea, Russia and Estonia and some US states.

“I want this law to pass quickly,” justice minister Somsak Thepsuthin said on Tuesday.

“I do not want to see news about bad things happening to women again,” he said.

Jaded Chouwilai, director of the Women and Men Progressive Movement Foundation, a non-governmental organisation that addresses sexual violence, said use of chemical castration would not tackle sex crimes.

“Convicts should be rehabilitated by changing their mindset while in prison,” he said.

“To use punishment like execution or injected castration reinforces the idea that offenders can no longer be rehabilitated.”