Human rights policies of various actors in Burma/Myanmar

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Description: "Mr. President, We thank the High Commissioner for her update. Crimes against humanity are ongoing against the estimated 600,000 Rohingya still living in Rakhine State, in the form of the systematic denial of their rights, including to equality, to a nationality, to freedom of movement, and access to adequate healthcare, education, and work opportunities. Their rights to participate in public life and to manifest religious beliefs continue to be routinely violated in what amounts to a system of apartheid.1 We are appalled that seven years after they were forced from their homes some 128,000 people – mostly Rohingya – remain confined to squalid detention camps within Rakhine State, reliant on humanitarian assistance for their survival. The Myanmar authorities have not engaged in genuine efforts to implement recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, led by the late Dr. Kofi Annan. The authorities claim to be implementing 81 of the report’s 88 recommendations, however the reality on the ground is very different. Humanitarian access and access for independent journalists and human rights monitors remains severely restricted, and Rohingya and other Muslim communities are systematically discriminated against and do not have freedom of movement. There has been no progress in restoring Rohingya’s citizenship rights or reviewing the deeply discriminatory 1982 Citizenship Law. Mr. President, Since the start of 2019 there has been major escalation in fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, an ethnic Rakhine armed group, in Rakhine State. Amnesty International has documented serious violations – including war crimes – by the military against civilians from all communities, including the Rohingya.2 These new violations highlight the institutionalised and systematic nature of military violations in Myanmar, as well as the consequences of ongoing impunity. Indeed, some recent violations have been committed by soldiers from the same units implicated in atrocities against the Rohingya population in late 2017. Since 21 June 2019, Myanmar authorities have shut down internet access in conflict-affected areas of Rakhine and Chin States. The situation has created an information black hole and raises urgent concerns about the safety of civilians given the ongoing conflict.3 Rakhine State is not safe for the communities still living there, it is most certainly not safe for refugees to return to. Madam High Commissioner, Given the conclusions of the Rosenthal report, which found “systemic and structural” UN failures in Myanmar,4 how do you think the UN can better integrate human rights into its work in the country and beyond? Thank you, Mr. President..."
Source/publisher: Progressive Voice via "Amnesty International" (AI Index: ASA 16/0642/2019)
2019-07-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 334.36 KB
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Description: ''The workshop aimed to facilitate discussion on strategic litigation options for communities adversely affected by existing and proposed investment projects. The ICJ and civil society organizations have extensively documented how human rights abuses continue to occur in the context of business activities in Myanmar. Communities generally have limited understanding of their rights, while government actors and businesses regularly flout their legal obligations. The ICJ’s international legal adviser Sean Bain first set out applicable international standards, with a focus on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. He identified Myanmar’s nascent legal framework for environmental protection as a key area of law with potential to deter rights abuses. He noted that while in December 2015 the Government of Myanmar issued the Environmental Impact Assessment Procedure, its provisions are rarely followed or enforced in practice...''
1970-01-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: ''“The Court’s decision effectively punishes these two courageous journalists for exposing human rights violations, following a grossly unfair trial,” said Frederick Rawski, Asia Pacific Director for the ICJ. “The decision is a miscarriage of justice that inflicts needless suffering on them and their families, threatens freedom of expression, damages Myanmar’s global standing, and undermines its justice institutions all at once,” he added. The ICJ has monitored the case since the journalists’ initial detention in December 2017. As previously noted by the ICJ, the detention and trial has violated numerous basic fair trial guarantees. The prosecutors had a duty to drop charges and the judge should have dismissed the case given the lack of evidence and the unlawfulness of detention because of fair trail rights violations...''
Source/publisher: International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
2018-09-03
Date of entry/update: 2019-02-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: ''It is organized by the ICJ, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch in cooperation with ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). The issues of documenting violations, possible evidence-gathering mechanisms and the role of the International Criminal Court will be discussed...''
Source/publisher: International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
2018-09-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 90.27 KB
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Description: ''Last week a partial but significant foundation was laid to provide accountability for gross human rights violations in Myanmar, and hopefully to deter repetition. After receiving a 444-page UN report extensively detailing human rights violations in Myanmar and making recommendations to address them, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva passed a resolution that includes the establishment of an evidence-gathering mechanism to enable future trials. The “independent mechanism” is mandated to “collect, consolidate, preserve and analyze evidence of the most serious international crimes and violations of international law committed in Myanmar since 2011 and to prepare files to facilitate and expedite fair and independent criminal proceedings.” Similar to an existing mechanism for Syria, it will be responsible for preparing case files to standards required for any future criminal prosecution in a national or international court of law...''
Source/publisher: International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
2018-10-04
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: ''On 6 September 2018, an ICC Pre-Trial Chamber ruled that the Court could exercise jurisdiction over the alleged deportation (as a crime against humanity) of the Rohingyas from Myanmar into Bangladesh, since one element of the crime (crossing a border) took place in Bangladesh, which is a State party to the Rome Statute. The Chamber noted that the same rationale could apply to other crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court “if it were established that at least an element of another crime … or part of such a crime is committed on the territory of a State Party,” citing persecution and other inhumane acts as possible examples in this case. The crime of genocide was not directly addressed. The ruling did not address other crimes allegedly committed against the Rohingya, or crimes against other minorities elsewhere within Myanmar, including in Shan and Kachin States. The proceeding is still at an early, pre-investigation, phase. If at the conclusion of a preliminary examination the Prosecutor assesses that there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation, she must first seek authorization from the Pre-Trial Chamber...''
Source/publisher: International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
2018-09-13
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: ''There’s a popular idea, perpetuated by colonialists, Western travelers, and national historians, that women in Myanmar have long enjoyed status equal to men. I have heard this myself from Burma experts who didn’t understand why I, a gender policy specialist, wanted to go to Myanmar. But historian Tharaphi Than, author of Women in Modern Burma, has a different view. There have been a few powerful women in Myanmar, she argues, but their stories, told again and again, have crowded out the stories of the unequal majority. Yet, as I was also beginning to learn, Myanmar has a rich history of women who refused to play by the rules—journalists who kept writing, artists who kept painting, and soldiers who kept serving their country even when they were attacked, dismissed, and demeaned. Which is why I was here in Mandalay, to gather those less-told stories of remarkable women, past and present, for a children’s book that would inspire a new generation of Myanmar girls to dream big...''
Source/publisher: Asia Foundation
2018-10-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-01-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: ''It’s been one year since Myanmar police arrested Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo on December 12, 2017. Over the past year, Myanmar’s increasingly restricted state of press freedom has been laid bare for the world to see. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been imprisoned since their arrest while investigating a massacre by the military in the village of Inn Din in Rakhine State. On September 30, a court convicted them of violating the country’s Official Secrets Act and sentenced both to seven years in prison. Their conviction in the face of strong evidence that the police handed them documents as part of a plan to trap and arrest them has sent a chill through the Myanmar media. “After the Reuters journalists were arrested, most journalists were asking ‘Who will be the next victim?’” said a local journalist. “We are always asking ourselves, ‘What if we print that story? Will there be a problem for us?’” Reporting on abuses by the military and Rohingya Muslims is considered particularly risky...''
Creator/author: Linda Lakhdhir
Source/publisher: Human Rights Watch
2018-12-12
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Executive Summary: "On 8 November 2015, Burma?s electorate will vote for the representatives who will sit in Parliament from 2016 to 2021. The polls are anticipated to usher in a Parliament that will be markedly different from the body that was installed as a result of the November 2010 election and the April 2012 by-elections. This will be due to the significant number of seats that the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, is expected to win. The November 2010 election was tainted by a flawed legal framework, a lack of inclusiveness, widespread corruption, irregularities, and voter fraud, and was boycotted by the NLD. As expected, the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) overwhelmingly won the polls. Dominated by the USDP and military-appointed members of Parliament (MPs), Parliament failed to amend or repeal many of Burma?s oppressive laws and blocked key constitutional amendments. In many cases, newly enacted legislation contained provisions that ran counter to international human rights standards. Other new laws prioritized political and economic interests over human rights. In addition, MPs rejected numerous proposals aimed at addressing important human rights issues. The likelihood that the next Parliament?s make-up will be substantially different from the current one does not necessarily mean that lawmakers will be more effective in addressing key human rights issues. This report, based on a survey of the human rights commitments of Burma?s political parties, found that parties generally favored actions aimed at tackling critical issues that have a negative impact on human rights. However, in several of those instances, the report shows that parties failed to identify and prioritize the specific measures that would address key human rights concerns in a direct and effective way. This was particularly true in the areas of legislative reform, ethnic minority rights, and women?s rights, where political considerations seemed to take precedence over human rights concerns. The report?s findings also reflect the disturbing situation regarding religious intolerance in Burma. Forty-two percent of the political parties refused to make any commitments on ways to address discrimination against Muslim Rohingya. More troubling was the fact that several parties aligned themselves with the government?s official position that denies the existence of Rohingya as one of Burma?s ethnic groups. In the final analysis, the alarming result was that almost three quarters of the political parties refused to support the amendment of the 1982 Citizenship Law to give Muslim Rohingya equal access to citizenship rights. In addition, responses in favor of the repeal of recently enacted legislation, misleadingly labeled ?Race and Religion Protection Laws,? garnered little support among the political parties. The report provides numerous recommendations to MPs, based on statements and reports issued by various UN special procedures as well as resolutions adopted by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and the UN General Assembly (UNGA). These recommendations provide a clear agenda for parliamentary action to deal with important human rights issues that, if left unaddressed by the newly elected MPs, risk seriously undermining the country?s reform process."
Source/publisher: International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
2015-11-00
Date of entry/update: 2015-11-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 731.05 KB
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