Martial law decrees, States of Emergency etc. (commentary)

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Description: The Emergency Provisions Act was repealed on 4 October 2016
Source/publisher: "The Global New Light of Myanmar", 5 October 2016
2016-10-05
Date of entry/update: 2016-10-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 286.87 KB
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Description: "NAYPYIDAW — A new bill that would repeal Burma?s controversial 1950 Emergency Provisions Act was submitted to the Lower House of Parliament on Monday; the move was met with divergent opinions from lawmakers. The bill, which proposes the abolishment of the 66-year-old law, was drafted and submitted to the Parliament by the Lower House Bill Committee. Tun Tun Hein, committee chair, argued that the Emergency Provisions Act had been used by previous governments to stifle political dissent. ?It is not safe for citizens as long as this act exists. We therefore propose annulling the act for the sake of public security,” Tun Tun Hein told the reporters after the parliamentary session. ?This act was [initially] applied for military purposes, but then it was also applied for political purposes,” he said. ?All the governments—from Anti-Fascist People?s Freedom League to the Revolutionary Council to the previous government—have applied this act, allowing the government to arrest a person quite easily,” he claimed, referencing independent Burma?s first government, Ne Win?s military regime, and the Union Solidarity and Development Party?s (USDP) quasi-civilian administration. ?The NLD government is now [in office] and we want to change this,” Tun Tun Hein added..."
Creator/author: Htet Naing Zaw
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy"
2016-08-02
Date of entry/update: 2016-08-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Bill Committee put forward a bill to revoke the 1950 Emergency Provisions Act to Pyithu Hluttaw yesterday. U Ba Shein, member of the Bill Committee, submitted the motion and U Tun Tun Hein, chairman of the Bill Committee, read out the committee?s report on the bill on the fifth day of the second regular session of the Second Pyithu Hluttaw."
Source/publisher: "The Global New Light of Myanmar"
2016-08-02
Date of entry/update: 2016-08-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 266.52 KB
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Description: NAY PYI TAW, May 24 (Xinhua) -- "Both houses of Myanmar?s parliament have approved without objection a bill revoking the Law to Safeguard the State against the Dangers of Those Desiring to Cause Subversive Acts which was enacted over four decades ago. Speaker of the House of Representatives (Lower House) U Win Myint announced on Tuesday that since agreed by both houses without amendment, the Union Parliament is to honor the adoption in accordance with the constitution. The bill was first submitted to the Lower House for debate earlier this month and then transferred to the House of Nationalities (Upper House)..."
Source/publisher: Xinhua
2016-05-24
Date of entry/update: 2016-05-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Myanmar should immediately repeal or amend a new law passed today which could grant former presidents immunity for human rights violations and crimes under international law, said Amnesty International. Myanmar?s outgoing Parliament today voted to pass the Former Presidents Security Law. The original draft had rung alarm bells as it granted former presidents immunity from prosecutions for undefined ?actions” committed during their time in office..."
Source/publisher: Amnesty International
2016-01-28
Date of entry/update: 2016-02-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "The Asian Human Rights Commission has been following with concern news of the latest outbreak of communal violence in Burma. Although the circumstances of how the violence began are clouded, the president on 22 March 2013 declared an indefinite state of emergency over four townships of Mandalay Region--Meikhtila, Wundwin, Mahlaing and Thazi--after the imposition of an order under section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code on March 20 to shut down businesses until the situation improved failed to quell growing conflict that has officially left eleven people dead. Eyewitness accounts put the number of dead possibly in the dozens, with many people besides injured. It would be disingenuous of the authorities in Burma to describe the violence as unexpected. Throughout the latter part of 2012, they permitted demonstrations by thousands of persons calling for the expulsion from the country of Muslims in the west alleged to have entered illegally. At that time, a number of reprise attacks occurred against targets in other parts of the country, although these did not spread widely and attracted little media attention. Yet now the response has been, as previously, to react with the introduction of a state of emergency as if confronted with an event that was wholly unexpected, for which the authorities had not been prepared..."
Source/publisher: Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)
2013-03-23
Date of entry/update: 2013-03-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: Commentary on the status of laws enacted under the 1974 Constitution
Creator/author: A Lawyer
Source/publisher: "The New Light of Myanmar"
2009-08-15
Date of entry/update: 2009-08-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 18.97 KB
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Description: "Since January 1989, especially since March and again in June and July, the tempo of political arrests has accelerated in Myanmar as the main student groups and political parties have organized more frequent and larger gatherings at which opinions increasingly critical of the authorities have been voiced. In a document made public on 14 July 989. Myanmar (Burma): Call for Dissemination and Enforcement of International Standards on the Use of Force, Amnesty International expressed the hope that martial law restrictions on civil liberties currently imposed by the armed forces in Myanmar would not be enforced through the deliberate killing of demonstrators, contrary to international standards on the use of force and the right to life. On 17 and 18 July 1989 the martial law administration empowered the military to impose death sentences on political opponents, including people not accused of violence, through summary judicial procedures that fall short of international standards for fair trial and are contrary to the safeguards enshrined in the Myanmar Judicial Law. These deficiencies include allowing the death penalty for non-violent, not clearly criminal or else only minor offences, elimination of the right of appeal to a higher court and apparent curtailments of the right to a defence, particularly as regards the calling of defence witnesses. The new martial law provisions could lead to arbitrary executions and Amnesty International has called on the authorities not to execute three political prisoners sentenced to death under them on 27 July 1989 The three are accused of involvement in a terrorist bombing. They have 30 days in which to ask the Myanmar armed forces Commander-in-Chief to review their sentences. Unless he orders their reprieve, they will be hanged..."
Source/publisher: Amnesty International (ASA 16/15/89)
1989-08-00
Date of entry/update: 2005-08-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 69.82 KB
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Description: Forword by H. E. U Thein Oo, Minister of Justice, National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma.... Contents: Foreword by H.E. U Thein Oo; Introduction; The Constitutional Period, 1948-1962; Military Rule, 1962-1974; Military Rule, 1974-1988; Military Rule, 1988-1997; Military Rule, 1997 to date; The State Protection Law of 1975: Articles 1 and 2: Name and Definitions; Articles 3 to 6: State of Emergency; Articles 7 to 9: Restrictions of Rights; Articles 10 to 15: Preventive Detention; Article 16: No Real Provisions for Review; Articles 17 and 18: Reporting; Articles 19 to 21: Appeal; Articles 22 to 24: General Provisions; State Protection and Preventive Detention; Is Burma Changing Towards Rule of Law?; Conclusion.
Creator/author: P. Gutter, B.K. Sen
Source/publisher: Burma Lawyers? Council
2001-12-00
Date of entry/update: 2000-11-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 255.7 KB
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