(Geneva, December 12, 2007) The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) on Wednesday called on the United Nations to establish a special study and strategy group to deal comprehensively with the growing human rights problems in Burma, while the UN’s special expert on the country called on the government to make some concessions.
Speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Hong Kong-based regional group said that the international community had known about the scale of human rights abuses in Burma for years, but had struggled to come up with effective responses.
“A significant reason for the failure to make progress is that the human rights problems in Myanmar are not yet understood,” Min Lwin Oo said, speaking on behalf of the ALRC, referring to the country by its official title.
Min Lwin Oo said that the ALRC wholeheartedly backed a proposal of the Special Rapporteur on Burma, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, that there be an international inquiry into forced abductions, disappearances, killings and other gross abuses after the nationwide protests of August and September
But more could be done, he said.
“The Asian Legal Resource Centre has strongly recommended that a special study and strategy group be established to coordinate work among United Nations agencies and some other key international bodies that are active there,” Min Lwin Oo said, pointing out that it would obtain strong support from other UN bodies whose work has been increasingly undermined in recent times.
He emphasised that it was necessary for the council to go beyond “business as usual”.
Full text of his statement follows.
Meanwhile, in his closing remarks to the assembly, the Special Rapporteur said that the government “has to make some concessions and recognise some of the points of my report”.
Pinheiro noted that 33 state and non-state representatives had spoken on Burma throughout the morning and not one had questioned the findings of his report in the manner of the government representative.
On Tuesday the ambassador for Burma, U Wunna Maung Lwin, described the special expert’s report into the August and September events as “very intrusive and filled with unfounded sweeping allegations which we total reject”.
“I didn’t invent this,” Pinheiro said, waving his report at the ambassador and referring to the large numbers of alleged abuses and use of excessive force by the government authorities.
As an example of the government’s breaches of its commitments, he observed that whereas it had promised to the special envoy of the UN Secretary General that there would be no more arrests, these had in fact continued.
He noted that the special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, is due to address the General Assembly on December 18.
“I think your government, between today and December 18, has time to come with some concessions,” Pinheiro stressed.
Earlier, the ALRC issued a statement questioning the ambassador’s claim that the government had established its own inquiry into alleged human rights violations, describing it as “surprising, given that no such body has ever been reported upon in the state media”.
“Does the body actually exist or is it just a piece of fiction intended to sidetrack the Special Rapporteur’s modest proposal for an international mission?” the ALRC asked, suggesting that the onus is on the government to prove that it really is doing something as it claims.
Full text of that statement is available here: http://www.alrc.net/doc/mainfile.php/alrc_statements/462
In Geneva, the ALRC is widely distributing copies of a new 136-page report on human rights and “legal dementia” in Burma.
The copy is available in PDF format here: http://www.article2.org/pdf/v06n05.pdf
Or visit the homepage of the group’s bimonthly periodical, article 2: http://www.article2.org
ORAL INTERVENTION PRESENTED BY THE ASIAN LEGAL RESOURCE CENTRE AT THE SIXTH SESSION OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL (RESUMED), 12 DECEMBER 2007
Interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar
Mr. Special Rapporteur
I speak on behalf of the Asian Legal Resource Centre.
You have rightly said of your most recent trip to Myanmar, following the protests of August and September, that it should be seen not as an end in itself but rather as an initial step. The questions that are now on everybody’s mind are what should be the next steps, and on what road?
Although the international community has known about the gravity and scale of human rights abuses in Myanmar for years, it has struggled to come up with effective responses.
A significant reason for the failure to make progress is that the human rights problems in Myanmar are not yet understood. Limits to understanding about what is really happening there have hampered the Council’s work.
Mr. Special Rapporteur
Among the recommendations in your new report is that the government of Myanmar “invite an international commission of inquiry… to investigate in a more comprehensive manner the recent events”.
The Asian Legal Resource Centre wholeheartedly supports this proposal.
Two issues that we believe must be investigated are the high number of forced disappearances, and the growing use of extralegal gangs of thugs, or Swan-arshin, to threaten, assault and detain citizens.
But beyond this, we must ask, how can the Council best enable you to go further into the systemic obstacles to human rights in Myanmar?
The Asian Legal Resource Centre has strongly recommended that a special study and strategy group be established to coordinate work among United Nations agencies and some other key international bodies that are active there.
We believe that this group would get much support from humanitarian organisations, who increasingly acknowledge that their work is greatly hampered by worsening abuses of human rights in the country.
We are convinced that such a group could take the work of the Special Rapporteur and other human rights mandates past the current level, and that the Council must show leadership to see it established.
Mr. Special Rapporteur
The Asian Legal Resource Centre is, like you, convinced of the imperative for work on human rights in Myanmar to be more than business as usual. It believes that presented with a new specific, determined and realistic proposal of this sort, the Council will be obliged to act more effectively at this critical juncture.
Thank you, Mr. Special Rapporteur.
