COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fifty-sixth session
Item 9 of the provisional
agenda
QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL
FREEDOMS IN ANY PART OF THE WORLD
Report of the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Rajsoomer Lallah, submitted in
accordance with Commission on Human Rights resolution 1999/17
Paragraphs_____Page
I. ACTIVITIES OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR .......................... 2 - 6 4
II. THE EXERCISE OF CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS................ 7 - 29 5
A. Measures adversely affecting democratic governance.......... 7 - 14 5
B. Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions .................... 15 - 16 6
C. Freedom of association ..................................................... 17 7
D. The administration of justice ................................................ 18 - 29 7
III
THE EXERCISE OF ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND
CULTURAL RIGHTS...................................................................... 30
- 49 9
A. Background...................................................................... 30 - 31 9
B. Poverty ........................................................................... 32 - 35 9
C. Food security................................................................... 36 - 37 10
D. AIDS/HIV epidemic........................................................ 38 - 41 11
E. State of education .......................................................... 42 - 43 12
F. Forced labour ................................................................ 44 - 49 12
IV. THE GENDER PERSPECTIVE .................................................... 50 - 58 13
A. Violence against women ................................................. 50 - 56 13
B. Forced labour ................................................................ 57 15
C. Arbitrary detention ......................................................... 58 15
V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...................... 59 - 65 15
A. Conclusions .................................................................. 59 - 64 15
B. Recommendations ......................................................... 65 16
Political repression and the lack of real engagement in a political dialogue with opposition groups continue to be the main sources of measures adversely affecting democratic governance in Myanmar. The policy of large-scale displacement of certain ethnic groups, the continued practice of forced labour for military camp work and portering, and related human rights violations remain the main cause of refugee movements.
The Permanent Representative of Myanmar to the United Nations indicated at the General Assembly last November that the authorities in Myanmar were giving serious consideration to a visit by the Special Rapporteur. To date no concrete steps have materialized.
Myanmar’s ethnic and religious minorities, such as the Karen, Karenni, Shan and Rohingyas, continue to suffer severe abuses, including arbitrary arrest, killings, forced labour in the army and trafficking of women.
The administration of justice continues to operate under the effective control of a military regime where the exercise of the basic freedoms of expression, association, assembly and movement are criminalized under the law itself. Vaguely worded laws, such as the 1950 Emergency Provisions Act and the 1975 State Protection Law, continue to be used to arrest and sentence persons for their peaceful political activities. It is estimated that in 1998 there were approximately 800 political prisoners in Myanmar.
According to reliable studies of the economic and social situation in Myanmar, the country is riddled with abject poverty. Child mortality rates are relatively high for a country with Myanmar’s level of gross domestic product per capita. Poverty rates are approximately the same in urban and rural areas, but most of the poor (71 per cent) live in rural areas. Flawed policies and inefficient mechanisms for rice procurement are largely responsible for the high level of malnutrition and infant and maternal mortality. Government budgetary priorities that in effect limit expenditure on social services have exacerbated the current situation.
The adoption by the Government of Myanmar of military solutions to political problems, while seeking military and financial inputs from outside the country to impose its order on the people, continues to generate a pattern of gross and systematic human rights violations.
Unless the regime moves away from military solutions and engages instead in an all‑inclusive political dialogue with the political opposition, including representatives of the ethnic groups, and addresses the concerns of the international community, the pattern of human rights violations which has characterized the last decade in Myanmar will continue and no significant progress can be expected towards realizing the country’s economic potential and achieving the levels of human welfare and prosperity enjoyed by the rest of South-East Asia.