Rights groups are urging Myanmar to work with international bodies to address allegations of rights abuse and failures to reform rather than rebut the accusations at the U.N. Human Rights Council in the run-up to the Southeast Asian country\u2019s next Universal Periodic Review in January 2021.<\/p>\n
In a statement issued Monday, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) criticized the Myanmar government for disregarding international legal obligations to provide accountability for military atrocities against the Rohingya Muslims and other ethnic minorities in conflict areas.<\/p>\n
Despite a commitment to adopting democratic reforms and respecting civil and political rights in the 2015 UPR review cycle, Myanmar has made little progress and failed to undertake meaningful reforms to bring its rights-violating laws into compliance with international human rights standards, HRW said.<\/p>\n
HRW also noted the government\u2019s failure to revoke or amend laws that it said undermine the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly.<\/p>\n
\u201cMyanmar\u2019s unwillingness to provide accountability for rampant rights abuses seems to know no bounds,\u201d said Phil Robertson, HRW\u2019s deputy Asia director, in the statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cU.N. member countries should use Myanmar\u2019s U.N. review to demand the government make progress through deeds, not more flowery talk, to achieve genuine human rights improvements.\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In a submission to the Human Rights Council on July 9, HRW cited Myanmar\u2019s refusal to cooperate with a Council-mandated fact-finding mission to investigate atrocity crimes, its barring of a previous U.N. special rapporteur on human rights from entering the country, and its failure to fulfill a pledge by former President Thein Sein to set up a permanent office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the country.<\/p>\n
\u2018Running a risk\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Yangon-based rights activists on Wednesday also called on Myanmar leaders to investigate rights violation allegations and to prosecute those responsible if the government is unwilling to resolve them in the international arena and through the UPR reporting process.<\/p>\n Nickey Diamond, a human rights activist with Fortify Rights, said he does not see the government taking effective measures to rectify the issue.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead, the government is protecting the military for its rights violations,\u201d he told RFA.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is running the risk of involving itself in the crime,\u201d Diamond said. \u201cWhen there are allegations that rights violations occurred, the government is supposed to take measures, such as investigations. The government also should take action to prosecute the violators.\u201d<\/p>\n Aung Myo Min, executive director of Equality Myanmar, a human rights education group based in Yangon, said the government\u2019s lack of cooperation with international bodies over the allegations of rights abuse won\u2019t bode well for Myanmar\u2019s global standing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government\u2019s lack of action is drawing more international pressure,\u201d he said, adding that the situation could reach a point where international judicial bodies take over the cases.<\/p>\n Aung Myo Min noted that the international community has moved from condemnation of Myanmar to efforts to prosecute the country and its military leaders under international law.<\/p>\n The focus of these efforts is the crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in 2017 that left thousands dead and drove more than 740,000 others into neighboring Bangladesh.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore, they condemned Myanmar for human rights violations and made demands of the government, but now they are trying to bring the cases before the courts to be prosecuted under international criminal law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Myanmar faces genocide-related charges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the U.N.\u2019s top court which settles disputes between nations. The International Criminal Court, a separate court that tries individuals, in November authorized an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity perpetrated by Myanmar soldiers against the Rohingya.<\/p>\n At an ICJ hearing last December in The Hague, Aung San Suu Kyi, who led Myanmar\u2019s defense, said the violence meted out against the Rohingya \u2014 which included killings, mass rape, torture, and village burnings \u2014 occurred during army operations to sweep northern Rakhine of Muslim insurgents who had attacked police. She asked the ICJ to drop the case.<\/p>\n \u2018Different views\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Chan Aye, director general of the Consular and Legal Affairs Department at Myanmar\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told RFA that Myanmar would give an oral report on the government\u2019s performance during the UPR session in January.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government has expressed concern over these issues,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have talked about prosecuting the violators. Actions are being taken to do that. We are also making sure not to stop the flow of humanitarian assistance in the middle of armed conflicts.\u201d<\/p>\n Chan Aye added that Myanmar and the international community may have \u201cdifferent views\u201d on how well the country is doing in this regard.<\/p>\n Under the UPR system, U.N. member states undergo a review of their human rights records every five years under the guidance of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.<\/p>\n Reported by Phyu Phyu Khine for RFA\u2019s Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rights groups are urging Myanmar to work with international bodies to address allegations of rights abuse and failures to reform rather than rebut the accusations at the U.N. Human Rights Council in the run-up to the Southeast Asian country\u2019s next Universal Periodic Review in January 2021. In a statement issued Monday, New York-based Human Rights […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3923,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[54],"class_list":["post-4327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-upr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4327"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4328,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4327\/revisions\/4328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}