TEXT OF BURMA RESOLUTION AT THE UNC

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TEXT OF BURMA RESOLUTION AT THE UNCHR 2001

Economic and Social Council
Distr.GENERAL
E/CN.4//2001/L.20
12 April 2001
Original: ENGLISH

COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fifty-seventh session
Agenda item 9
Situation of human rights in Myanmar

QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND
FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS IN ANY PART OF THE WORLD

Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Cuyprus, Czech 
Republice, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, 
Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, New 
Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovak Republic, 
Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
Northern Ireland, United States of America: draft resolution

2001/.... Situation of human rights in Myanmar


The Commission on Human Rights,

Reaffirming that all Member States have an obligation to promote and 
protect human rights and fundamental freedoms as stated in the Charter of 
the United Nations and as elaborated in the Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights, the International Covenants on Human Rights and other applicable 
human rights instruments,

Recognizing that the systematic violations of civil, political, economic, 
social and cultural rights by the Government of Myanmar have had a 
significant adverse effect on the health and welfare of the people of Myanmar,

Welcoming the co-operation extended to the Special Envoy of the 
Secretary-General as well as to the newly-appointed Special Rapporteur 
during their respective recent visits to Myanmar, while regretting the 
failure of the Government of Myanmar to cooperate fully with some of the 
relevant United nations mechanisms, in particular the former Special 
Rapporteur,

Aware that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that the will 
of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government and 
therefore gravely concerned that the Government of Myanmar still has not 
implemented its commitment to take all necessary steps towards democracy in 
the light of the results of the elections held in 1990,

Recalling the observation made by the former Special Rapporteur that the 
absence of respect for the rights pertaining to democratic governance is at 
the root of all the major violations of human rights in Myanmar,

Mindful that Myanmar is a party to the Convention on the Rights of the 
Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination 
against Women, the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 on the protection 
of war victims and the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) and the 
Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention, 
1948 (No. 87) of the International Labour Organization,

Noting the resolution adopted by the International Labour Conference at its 
87th Session on the widespread use of forced labour in Myanmar, and also 
the resolution adopted by the International Labour conference at its 88th 
Session forseeing a broad range of measures aimed at ensuring the 
observance by Myanmar of the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry 
established to examine the application of the forced Labour Convention, 
which came into effect of 30 November 2000,

Recalling previous resolutions of the General Assembly and the Commission 
on Human Rights on the subject, most recently Assembly resolution 55/112 of 
4 December 2000 and Commission resolution 2000/23 of 18 April 2000,

Welcomes

(a)     The interim report of the former Special Rapporteur on the
situation of human rights in Myanmar (A/55/359), the observations on the 
situation and the recommendations contained therein;

(b)     The initial observations presented to the Commission by the newly 
appointed Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar;

(c)     The assistance of the Government of Myanmar in facilitating the 
recent exploratory visit by the newly appointed Special Rapporteur to 
Myanmar, and hopes that the Special Rapporteur will soon be able to return 
to Myanmar in order to discharge his mandate fully;

(d)     The report of the Secretary-General on the visit of his Special 
Envoy to Myanmar(A/55/509), and endorses the appeal of the Special Envoy 
for the initiation of a process of dialogue that would lead to national 
reconciliation and supports his efforts to achieve such a dialogue;

(e) The initiation of contacts between the Government and Aung San Suu Kyi, 
Secretary-General of the National League for Democracy, and hopes that such 
talks will be extended at an appropriate time to include, among others, 
representatives of ethnic minorities and thereby will facilitate 
broad-based and inclusive national reconciliation and the restoration of 
democracy;

(f) The release from detention of a number of democratic political activists;

(g) The continued cooperation with the International Committee of the Red 
Cross, allowing the Committee to communicate with and visit detainees in 
accordance with its modalities of work, and hopes that the program will be 
pursued further;

(h) The reopening of some university courses, but remains concerned that 
the right to education continues to be a right that is only exercised by 
those willing to refrain from exercising their civil and political rights 
and concerned at the reduction in the length of the academic year, the 
division and separation of the student population to distant campuses, and 
inadequate allocation of resources;

Notes the establishment by the Government of Myanmar of a preparatory 
process for a human rights committee and encourages it to continue this 
process in conformity with the principles relating to the status of 
national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights 
annexed to General Assembly resolution 48/134 of 28 December 1993;

Expresses its grave concern:

(a)     At the systematic policy of the Government of Myanmar of
persecuting the democratic opposition, National League for Democracy 
members and their families, as well as ethnic opposition parties, and at 
the use by the Government of intimidatory methods such as arbitrary arrest 
and detention, abuse of the legal system, including harsh long-term prison 
sentences, which has forced many to refrain from exercising their 
legitimate political rights;

(b) That the composition and working procedures of the National Convention 
do not permit either members of Parliament-elect or representatives of the 
ethnic minorities to express their views freely, and urges the Government 
of Myanmar to seek constructive means to promote national reconciliation 
and to restore democracy, including through the establishment of a time 
frame for action;

(c) That the Government of Myanmar has failed to cease its widespread and 
systematic use of forced labour of its own people, and to meet all the 
three recommendations of the International Labour Organization on that 
issue; this failure has compelled the International Labour Organization 
strictly to limit further cooperation with the Government, and has prompted 
the International Labour Conference to reconsider any cooperation with 
Myanmar and that governments, employers and workers take appropriate 
measures to ensure that the Government of Myanmar cannot take advantage of 
such relations to perpetuate of extend the system of forced or compulsory 
labour referred to by the Commission of Inquiry established to examine the 
observance of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No.29);

Deplores:

(a) The deterioration of the human rights situation and the continuing 
pattern of gross and systematic violations of human rights in Myanmar, 
including extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, enforced 
disappearances, rape, torture, inhuman treatment, mass arrests, forced 
labour, forced relocation and denial of freedom of assembly, association, 
expression and movement;

(b)  The lack of independence of the judiciary from the executive and the 
wide disrespect of the rule of law, including of the basic guarantees of 
due process, especially in cases involving exercise of political and civil 
rights and freedoms, resulting in arbitrary arrests and detentions, 
non-existence of judicial control over detentions, sentences passed without 
trial, keeping the accused in ignorance of the legal basis of the charge 
brought against them, trials held in secrecy and without proper legal 
representation, want of knowledge by the family and counsel of the accused 
about the sentence and detentions beyond the end of prison sentences;

(c) The continued violations of human rights of and widespread 
discriminatory practices against, persons belonging to minorities, 
including extrajudicial executions, rape, torture, ill-treatment and the 
systematic programmes of forced relocation directed against ethnic 
minorities, notably in Karen, Karenni, Rakhine Chin and Shan States and in 
Tennasserim division, use of anti-personnel land mines, destruction of 
crops and fields, and dispossession of land and property, which deprives 
these persons of all means of subsistence and result in large-scale 
displacement of persons and flows of refugees to neighbouring countries, 
thus causing negative effects for these countries, and an increasing number 
of internally displaced persons;

(d) The continuing violations of the human rights of women, in particular 
forced labour, trafficking, sexual violence and exploitation, often 
committed by military personnel, and especially directed towards women who 
are returning refugees, internally displaced or belong to ethnic minorities 
or the political opposition;

(e) The continuing violations of the rights of children, in particular 
through the lack of conformity of the existing legal framework with the 
Convention on the Rights of the Child, through conscription of children 
into forced labour programmes, through their sexual exploitation and 
through recruitment and other exploitation by the military, through 
discrimination against children belonging to ethnic and religious minority 
groups and elevated rates of infant and maternal mortality and malnutrition;

(f) The severe restrictions on the freedoms of opinion, expression, 
assembly and association, the restrictions on citizens' access to 
information, including censorship controls on all forms of domestic media 
and many international publications, and the restrictions imposed on 
citizens wishing to travel within the country and abroad, including the 
denial of passports on political grounds, and gross interference in private 
life, family, home or correspondence;

Calls upon the Government of Myanmar

(a) To develop further a constructive dialogue with the United Nations 
system, including the human rights mechanisms, for the effective promotion 
and protection of human rights in the country;

b) To continue to cooperate with the Secretary-General or his 
representative and to implement their recommendations;

(c) To cooperate fully with all United Nations representatives, in 
particular to develop further the contacts established with the 
newly-appointed Special Rapporteur, to allow him, without preconditions, to 
return to Myanmar in the near future and to conduct a field mission 
furthering his contacts with the government and all other relevant sectors 
of society, and thus enable him fully to discharge his mandate;

(d) To consider becoming a party to the International Covenant on Civil and 
Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and 
Cultural Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or 
Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the International Convention on the 
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Convention 
relating to the Status of Refugees and its Protocol;

Strongly urges the Government of Myanmar:(a) To implement fully the 
recommendations made by the Special Rapporteur;(b) To ensure full respect 
for all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including economic, social 
and cultural rights;

(c) In particular to ensure full respect for the freedoms of expression, 
association, movement and assembly, the right to a fair trial by an 
independent and impartial judiciary and the protection of the rights of 
persons belonging to ethnic and religious minorities, and to put an end to 
violations of the right to life and integrity of the human being and to the 
practices of torture, abuse of women, forced labour and forced relocations 
and to enforced disappearances and summary executions;

(d) To take urgent and concrete measures to ensure the establishment
of democracy in accordance with the will of the people as expressed in the 
democratic elections held in 1990 and, to this end, to extend the initiated 
talks with Aung San Suu Kyi, Secretary-General of the National League for 
Democracy, to a genuine and substantive dialogue with all the leaders of 
political parties and of ethnic minorities, with the aim of achieving 
national reconciliation and the restoration of democracy, and to ensure 
that political parties and non-governmental organizations can function freely;

(e)  To take all appropriate measures to allow all citizens to participate 
freely in the political process, in accordance with the principles of the 
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and to accelerate the process of 
transition to democracy, in particular through the transfer of power to 
democratically elected representatives, the prevention of intimidation and 
repression of political opponents and enabling the building up of a 
pluralistic civil society with the active participation of its members;

(f) To release immediately and unconditionally those detained or imprisoned 
for political reasons, including those in "government guest houses", as 
well as journalists, and to ensure their physical integrity and to permit 
them to participate in a meaningful process of national reconciliation;

(g) To improve conditions of detention, in particular in the field of 
health protection, and to illimminate unnessesary restrictions imposed on 
the detainees;

(h) To ensure the safety and well-being and freedom of movement of all 
political leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and to permit unrestricted 
communication with and physical access to Aung San Suu Kyi and other 
political leaders;

(i) To fulfil its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the 
Child and under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of 
Discrimination against Women by bringing national legislation and practice 
into conformity with these conventions, and to consider signing and 
ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All 
Forms of Discrimination against Women as well as the Optional Protocol on 
the convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in 
armed conflicts;

(j) To implement fully the recommendations made by the Committee on the 
Elimination of Discrimination against Women, in particular the request to 
prosecute and punish those who violate the human rights of women and to 
carry out human rights education and gender-sensitization training, in 
particular for military personnel;

(k) And all other parties to the hostilities in Myanmar to respect fully 
their obligations under international humanitarian law, including article 3 
common to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, to halt the use of 
weapons against the civilian population, to protect all civilians, 
including children, women and persons belonging to ethnic or religious 
minorities, from violations of humanitarian law, to end the use of children 
as soldiers and to avail themselves of services offered by impartial 
humanitarian bodies;

(l) To fully implement concrete legislative, executive and administrative 
measures to eradicate the practice of forced labour, in conformity with the 
relevant recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry and to re-enter into 
a dialogue with the International Labour Organization and invite the 
organization to establish a presence in Myanmar in order to enable it to 
verify that such measures are taken;

(m) To cease the laying of landmines, in particular as a means of ensuring 
forced relocation, and to desist from the forced conscription of civilians 
to serve as human minesweepers, as indicated in the report of the 
Commission of Inquiry;

(n) To end the enforced displacement of persons and other causes of 
internal displacement and refugee flows to neighbouring countries and to 
create conditions conducive to their voluntary return and full 
reintegration in safety and dignity, including returnees who have not been 
granted rights of full citizenship, in close cooperation with the 
international community, through the United Nations system and its 
specialized agencies, governmental and  intergovernmental organizations, as 
well as non-governmental organizations;

(o) To fulfil its obligations to restore the independence of the judiciary 
and due process and to end impunity of and bring to justice any 
perpetrators of human rights violations, including members of the military, 
and to investigate and prosecute alleged violations of 
international  humanitarian and human rights law committed by government 
agents in all circumstances;

Decides

(a) To extend the mandate of the Special Rapporteur, as contained in 
Commission resolution 1992/58 of 3 March 1992, for a further year, and 
requests the Special Rapporteur to submit an interim report to the General 
Assembly at its fifty-sixth session and to report to the Commission at its 
fifty-eighth session, and to keep a gender perspective in mind when seeking 
and analysing information;

(f)    To request the Secretary-General to continue to give all necessary 
assistance to the Special Rapporteur to enable him to discharge his mandate 
fully;

(c) To request the Secretary-General to continue his discussions with the 
Government on the situation of human rights and the restoration of 
democracy and with anyone he may consider appropriate in order to assist in 
the implementation of General Assembly resolution 55/112 and of the present 
resolution;

(d) To request the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to 
cooperate with the Director-General of the International Labour Office with 
a view to identifying ways in which their offices might usefully 
collaborate for the improvement of the human rights situation in Myanmar;

(e) To request the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the 
attention of all relevant parts of the United Nations system;

(g)   To continue its consideration of this question at its fifty-eighth 
session.

[ADOPTED BY CONSENSUS, 18 APRIL 2001]