Item 4 Interactive
Dialogue with Special Rapporteur on Myanmar
The challenges the
government of Myanmar faces in ensuring that the human rights of everyone in
the country are respected and protected means overcoming a long history of
oppressive military rule. Yet the authorities continue to arrest and prosecute
those who criticize the government and the military under the now-infamous
section 66(d) of the Telecommunications Act. The army and to a lesser extent
ethnic armed groups still commit abuses during the fighting in Shan and Kachin
States. And nearly 100,000 people remain in displaced persons camps spread
across both states where the government restricts access to humanitarian aid.
In Rakhine State,
nearly 120,000 primarily Rohingya Muslims remain trapped in abysmal conditions
in camps in violation of their human rights. Rohingya in the northern part of
the state endured widespread brutality from security forces after militant
attacks on police outposts in October. Over 90,000 were displaced by the
violence of whom over 70,000 fled to Bangladesh. Human Rights Watch and others
documented numerous abuses that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
concluded likely amounted to crimes against humanity.
Local officials’
capitulation to mob demands to shutter two Muslim schools in Yangon is the
latest government failure to protect Myanmar’s religious minorities. Muslim
communities that have had to resort to praying in the streets during the holy
month of Ramadan face arrest and prosecution by local authorities.
In March, this
Council took a strong stand against the violations in Rakhine State and
elsewhere in Myanmar by adopting a resolution that established an international
fact-finding mission into human rights violations by military and security
forces and other abuses in the country.
We welcome the
recent appointment of the fact-finding mission members, but the Burmese
government has shown no willingness to cooperate. If they refuse to grant
access to the mission, they will join the ranks of Burundi, Syria, and North
Korea, all of which have rejected similar international investigations.
This fact-finding
mission represents a crucial opportunity to address the systemic challenges
that stand between the Myanmar of today and an open democratic society that so
many have long sought to achieve. This opportunity should not be squandered. We
urge Myanmar not to isolate itself by refusing access to the mission, and would
ask the Special Rapporteur what Council members and observers can do to ensure
the mission is granted unfettered access to all areas of concern and allowed to
carry out its work freely.