Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar

Urges the Government of Myanmar to begin an inclusive post-election process of national reconciliation for a credible transition to democracy, including through meaningful dialogue and the participation of representatives of all groups in the political life of the country, within the framework of a transition to a civilian, legitimate and accountable system of government, based on the rule of law and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and to these ends to take immediate measures to engage in a meaningful and substantive dialogue through all channels with all opposition parties, political, ethnic and civil society groups and actors, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi;

Calls on the Government of Myanmar to protect the physical safety of all people in Myanmar, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, in a manner that is consistent with respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms;

Calls upon the Government to recognize the pre-election registration status of all political parties, including the National League for Democracy, and to lift all restrictions imposed on the representatives of political parties as well as on other political and civil society actors in the country;

Strongly calls upon the Government of Myanmar to cooperate with the international community in order to achieve concrete progress with regard to human rights and fundamental freedoms, and political processes;

Strongly urges the unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience without delay, while expressing concern over their continuing high number, and also strongly urges the Government of Myanmar to desist from carrying out further politically motivated arrests and to release, without delay and without conditions, all prisoners of conscience, whose number is estimated to be approximately two thousand two hundred, including the Chairman of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, U Khun Tun Oo, the leader of the 88 Generation Students’ Group, U Min Ko Naing, and one of the founders of the 88 Generation Students’ Group, Ko Ko Gyi, and to allow their full participation in the political process;

Strongly calls upon the Government of Myanmar to lift restrictions on the freedom of assembly, association, movement and expression, including for free and independent media, by ensuring the openly available and accessible use of Internet and mobile telephone services and ending the use of censorship, including the use of the Electronic Transactions Law to prevent the reporting of views critical of the Government;

Calls upon the Government of Myanmar to undertake a transparent, inclusive and comprehensive review of compliance of all national legislation with international human rights law while engaging fully with democratic opposition, political, ethnic and civil society groups and actors, and recalling once more that the procedures established for the drafting of the Constitution resulted in a de facto exclusion of opposition groups from the process;

Urges the Government of Myanmar to ensure the independence and impartiality of the judiciary, the independence of lawyers, to guarantee due process of law and to fulfil previous assurances given by the authorities of Myanmar to the Special Rapporteur with respect to beginning a dialogue on judicial reform;

Strongly calls upon the Government of Myanmar to take urgent measures to put an end to the continuing grave violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including the targeting of persons based on their belonging to particular ethnic groups, the targeting of civilians as such in military operations, and rape and other forms of sexual violence, and to end impunity for such acts without delay;

Calls upon the Government of Myanmar to address, as a matter of urgency, consistent reports of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners of conscience, and to ensure that proper investigations are conducted on all deaths in prison, with family members duly informed of the findings, as well as to improve conditions in prisons and other detention facilities and to avoid the dispersal of prisoners of conscience to isolated prisons far from their families where they cannot receive regular visits or deliveries of supplementary supplies, including food and medicine;

Strongly recommends that the Government of Myanmar resume cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross;

Strongly urges the Government of Myanmar to end all forms of discrimination and to protect civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights on the basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and, in particular, to comply with its human rights obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child in this regard;

Strongly calls upon the Government of Myanmar to end the practice of systematic forced displacement of large numbers of people within their country and to neighbouring countries, and to end other causes of refugee flows, including the targeting of persons based on their belonging to particular ethnic groups;

Also strongly calls upon the Government of Myanmar to put an immediate end to the recruitment and use of child soldiers in violation of international law by all parties, welcomes the recent engagement of the Government on this issue and urges it to intensify measures to ensure the protection of children from armed conflict and to pursue its collaboration with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict, including by granting access to areas where children are recruited, for the purpose of implementing a plan of action to halt this practice;

Urges the Government of Myanmar to provide, in cooperation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, adequate human rights and international humanitarian law training for its armed forces, police and prison personnel, to ensure their strict compliance with international human rights law and international humanitarian law, and to hold them accountable for any violations thereof;

Calls upon the Government of Myanmar to ensure timely, safe, full and unhindered access to all parts of Myanmar, including conflict and border areas, for the United Nations, international humanitarian organizations and their partners, and to cooperate fully with those actors to ensure that humanitarian assistance is delivered throughout the country to all persons in need, including displaced persons;

Also calls upon the Government of Myanmar to consider acceding to the remaining international core human rights treaties, which would enable a dialogue with other human rights treaty bodies;

Further calls upon the Government of Myanmar to allow human rights defenders to pursue their activities unhindered and to ensure their safety, security and freedom of movement in that pursuit;

Strongly urges the Government of Myanmar to respond favourably and on a more timely basis to the Special Rapporteur’s requests to visit the country, to extend its full cooperation, including by providing access to all relevant information, bodies, institutions and persons, so as to enable him to fulfil his mandate effectively, and to implement, without delay, the recommendations addressed to the Government contained in his reports⁴ and in Human Rights Council resolutions S-5/1 of 2 October 2007, 6/33 of 14 December 2007, 7/31 of 28 March 2008, 8/14 of 18 June 2008, 10/27, 12/20 and 13/25;

Requests the Special Rapporteur to submit a progress report, and encourages him to provide an assessment of any progress made by the Government in relation to its stated intention to transition to a democracy to the General Assembly at its sixty-sixth session, and to the Human Rights Council in accordance with its annual programme of work;

Calls upon the Office of the High Commissioner to provide the Special Rapporteur with all the assistance and resources necessary to enable him to discharge his mandate fully;

Calls upon the Government of Myanmar to continue to engage in a dialogue with the Office of the High Commissioner with a view to ensuring full respect for all human rights and fundamental freedoms;