General Assembly, Fifty-sixth session. Summary: "The present report is the first report of the present Special Rapporteur, appointed to this mandate on 28 December 2000. The report refers to his activities and developments relating to the situation of human rights in Myanmar between 1 January and 14 August 2001. In view of the brevity and exploratory nature of the Special Rapporteur?s initial visit to Myanmar in April and pending a proper fact-finding mission to take place at the end of September 2001, this report addresses only a limited number of areas. In the Special Rapporteur?s assessment as presented in this report, political transition in Myanmar is a work in progress and, as in many countries, to move ahead incrementally will be a complex process. In the human rights context, against the background of ongoing talks between the Government and the opposition, there have been some positive signals indicative of the Government?s endeavour to make progress. Those include the dissemination of human rights standards for public officials, work of the governmental Committee on Human Rights, releases of political detainees, reopening of branches of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the main opposition party, the continued international monitoring of prison conditions, and cooperation with the Commission on Human Rights, inter alia, through the mandate of this Special Rapporteur and with the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Myanmar and the International Labour Organization. Among the areas in most need of significant improvement is the situation of vulnerable groups, inter alia, children, women and ethnic minorities and, in particular, those among them who have become internally displaced in zones of military operations. Overall, there exists a complex humanitarian situation in Myanmar, which may decline unless it is properly addressed by all concerned." Author: Mr. Paolo Sergio Pinheiro