The UN Special Rapporteur for Burma Warns of Ignoring the Violation of Human Rights

Published: Nov 6, 2013 Reading time: 2 minutes
The UN Special Rapporteur for Burma Warns of Ignoring the Violation of Human Rights
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The Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma Tomas Ojea Quintana presented one of his most comprehensive reports on the current situation in the country at the UN session on the 24th October. The report describes present problems with transformation and draws attention to profound ignorance of the violation of human rights by the Burmese government as well as the government’s direct involvement in curtailing civil rights and liberties.    

Quintana recommends to adopt 63 specific measures to promote human rights in the country. At the same time, he pinpoints the gravest problems such as incessant arresting of activists engaged in political activities, which are currently related to the issues of land rights in Rankin State. In this particular area the Special Rapporteur criticizes the government for its inaction in tackling the matter of ethnic violence, systematic arrests and restrictions on free movement of people in problematic villages in an attempt to expel them from the area. Furthermore, Quintana mentions a widely used spread of hatred towards Muslims that are not duly punished by the government.  

Last but not least, the Burmese government is being criticized for failing to draft such new laws that would respect international human-rights standards such as the Law on Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession which facilitated the arrest 18 activists in September alone. Nowadays, this is also freedom of opinion and expression that are not guaranteed in Burma as the media still succumb to censorship disguised well in the new Printers and Publishers Registration Act and others as today all publishers are obliged to submit any kind of publication to the Copyright and Registration Division for review.

The 2013 report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation in the area of human rights in Burma can be found here:

http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/MM/A-68-397_en.pdf

 

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Autor: Marie Havlínová, Coordinator, Burmese Projects