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REPORT OF THE SPECIAL RAP ON MYANMA



Report of the Special Rapporteur on Myanmar to the 56th Session of the UN
Commission on Human Rights, (Geneva, March-April 2000). 

Divided into two sections for easier downloading. 
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[SECTION 2]


III.  THE EXERCISE OF ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS

A.  Background

30.     The exercise of economic, social and cultural rights has been greatly
marked by the ethos of militarism inherent in the very nature of a military
regime.  The regime has constituted for itself a highly centralized system of
decision-making and enforced execution with no representative or public
participation in the decision making process, whether with regard to policy or
implementation.  The only organization which participates in implementation is
the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) which is, however,
under the complete direction and control of the military and for the purposes
for which the military alone decides to use it.

31.     In particular, and above all else, budgetary allocations are largely
determined by military considerations and objectives.  Thus, high and growing
military spending contrasts with diminishing allocations to basic social
services such as health, education and essential services, all necessary not
only to translate growth, however modest, into human development and welfare
but also to sustain growth.  


B.  Poverty

32.     According to a recent economic and social assessment of Myanmar by the
World Bank which is soon to be published, the country is "trapped in abject
poverty despite its rich resources base.  Although there has been notable
moderate growth in the economy, the trickle-down effect of this growth did not
reach the poor.  The country's poverty and development indicators have lagged
behind those of its neighbours".  Flawed government policies are considered to
be responsible for these outcomes. 

33.     The study adds, with regard to prospects for the future:  

"The recent slowdown in economic activity, the sharp worsening of foreign
reserves and severe contraction of public expenditure on basic services, are
inflicting further hardship on the poor.  If the present policies are
maintained, the people of Myanmar are unlikely to benefit substantially from a
resumption of growth in the region ...  Continuing lackluster economic
performance that fails to improve living standards for the majority of the
population could have devastating consequences for poverty, human development
and social cohesion in Myanmar."

34.     The World Bank study concludes that if Myanmar is to enjoy broad-based
economic growth and create significant gains in human welfare on a par with
those enjoyed in other countries in South-East Asia, it must consider a
comprehensive review of the Government's role in the economy with a view to
abandoning inefficient policies and reforming budgetary priorities that squeeze
expenditure on social services and infrastructure.  If the country is to meet
its full economic potential, it will be necessary both to establish domestic
incentives and capable institutions, and to attract high-quality foreign
investment.  However, in order to receive the support of the international
community, Myanmar must demonstrate a commitment to a broad-based policy that
would not only address the economic and social issues elaborated in the Bank's
report, but also the other concerns of the international community, in
particular United Nations resolutions concerning political and civil rights.

35.     Yet a different study of July 1998, provided to the Special Rapporteur,
has concluded that data concerning the ability to lead a long healthy life, to
be educated, and to have command over resources needed for a decent living
indicate that Myanmar's 46 million people are generally poor.  Further, the
same study points to the low levels of achievement and slow progress in several
critical areas of human development in Myanmar.


C.  Food security

36.     According to the World Bank study, "the level and depth of hardship
among families in Myanmar is vividly reflected in high rates of malnutrition
among pre-school-aged children.  Even based on official statistics, far too
many of Myanmar's children suffer from wasting and stunting.  Moderate wasting
affects almost 3 out of 10 children under 3 years of age, and 1 in 10 
is severely malnourished.  This has been described elsewhere as a 'silent
emergency' in Myanmar.  It has also been noted that deprivation on this scale
indicates not only immediate need, but also adverse long-term repercussions for
the health and intellectual development of the affected children".

37.     In a recent report submitted to the Special Rapporteur, entitled "The
People's Tribunal on Food Scarcity and Militarisation in Burma, October 1999"1,
the authors received testimonies from a large number of witnesses upon which
the following conclusions were reached:

"1.     There exists hunger and food scarcity in both the civil war and
non-civil war areas of Myanmar, in particular the Karen, Karenni and Shan
states, and the Delta region;

"2.     The situation of hunger is spreading both geographically (to more
regions of Myanmar) and demographically (affecting people from more varied
walks of life);

"3.     The causes of this situation are as follows:

"3.1    the destruction of staple crops which provide the local food supply.

"3.2    uncompensated conscription of people to work on State projects which do
not leave enough time for them to work their fields.
"3.3.   uncompensated conscription of people to do portering to areas far from
their home villages, resulting in not being able to have time to grow food.

"3.4.   forced relocation of people to areas where rice is difficult to
grow, or
to unfamiliar terrain making it difficult to find enough food.

"3.5    a quota system of the amount of rice to be supplied to the government
substantially below market price, which must be supplied whether or not the
harvest was adequate.  This often leaves the people in debt and without any
rice of their own to eat."


D.  AIDS/HIV epidemic

38.     The economic deterioration and the widespread human rights abuses that 
accompanied the rule of SLORC since 1988 and later, in 1997, SPDC, has had a
dramatic effect on the health status of the people of Myanmar, a situation that
is compounded by limited access to health care, particularly in the
ethnic-minority regions.  According to the World Bank study mentioned above,
the last 10 years have been characterized by a sharp decline (80 per cent) in
the usage of public hospitals and dispensaries.  This is mainly due in
principal to the low level of public spending on health (about 0.2 per cent). 
The widespread campaigns of forced relocation and wholesale transfers of
communities such as the Karen and other minority groups, arbitrary arrests,
slave labour coupled with the use of civilians as human minesweepers have
further deteriorated the health situation in the country.  Furthermore, about 1
million children are malnourished.  The health of the people of Myanmar is
further jeopardized by another threat:  the increasing use of heroin and the
alarming spread of HIV/AIDS.  According to the World Bank report on Myanmar,
"there are over 1 million HIV/AIDS cases".

39.     It is further reported that the availability of heroin in Myanmar has
encouraged its local cultivation, especially for the consumption of intravenous
drug users.  This is considered to have contributed to a marked increase in HIV
infection throughout the region.  While government statistical estimates are
conservative, the United Nations Drug Control Programme and non-governmental
organizations that work in the health sector estimate the number of addicts to
be between 400,000 and 500,000.  The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
(UNAIDS) published estimates for the end of 1997 indicating the number of
adults and children living with the HIV/AIDS virus to be around 440,000.

40.     UNAIDS reports that the Government of Myanmar began HIV screening in
1985 of high-risk populations and blood donors and in 1989, the National AIDS
Technical Committee was formed and later restructured, within the National
Health Committee, to the multisectoral National AIDS Committee, with a vertical
structure of divisional, district and township AIDS committees.  Further, the
National Health Committee has established guidelines for the Government's AIDS
policy since then.  Although the Government was reluctant to acknowledge the
existence of an HIV/AIDS problem when it was first discovered in 1985, recent
efforts show a change in attitude.  However, resources made available to combat
HIV/AIDS would appear to have been limited.  The impact of these resources,
meagre in comparison with the magnitude of the problem, is judged to have been
limited by the Government's reluctance to permit international non-governmental
organizations to work in collaboration with community-based organizations. 
Permits to visit patients are difficult to obtain and access to high-risk
groups and vulnerable groups is restricted.

41.     Other significant factors impeding the measures taken to date to
address
the situation are said to be the lack of "social marketing" crucial in
prevention efforts and the lack of behavioural research and assessment of
prevention interventions.  Equally important, little intervention has targeted
women.  There would also appear to be a lack of political will to tackle the
HIV/AIDS problem as well as of resources at a level required for a successful
HIV/AIDS care and prevention programme.  Indeed, earlier this year UNAIDS
warned of a growing epidemic in Myanmar and indicated that the regime was
largely ignoring it.  The Special Rapporteur shares this concern and urges the
Government to recognize the problem and allocate sufficient resources to
address the epidemic, which might quite easily affect neighbouring countries as
well.


E.  State of education

42.     Universities are still closed.  The authorities still fear that the
demand of the students to have a say in structuring their own education might
lead, as in 1988, to demands for the restoration of democracy.  A whole
generation, and the country itself, is being deprived of the knowledge,
intellectual development and expertise which a country badly requires for its
own development and human welfare.

43.     Available data indicate a trend of declining expenditure on
education by
the Government, accounting for 1.1 per cent of GDP in 1995-1996, from 2.6 per
cent in 1991-1992.  The World Bank study referred to above corroborates these
estimates, adding that it is impossible to provide good quality education
services with the substantial erosion in education spending that has occurred
over the past decade, and that "current Government spending in education as a
share of national income is among the lowest in the world". 


F.  Forced Labour

44.     In his report to the General Assembly (A/53/364), the Special
Rapporteur
provided details on the work of the Commission of Inquiry established by ILO to
examine complaints lodged by the international Confederation of Free Trade
Unions concerning the observance by Myanmar of the Forced Labour Convention,
1930 (No. 29), as well as the observations made in the Director-General's
report (see A/54/440, paras. 21-30).

45.     The Commission of Inquiry submitted its report in July 1998.  Its
findings were updated in subsequent reports of which the most recent was
published in November 1999 for the 276th session of the ILO Governing Body. 
This report (document GB.276/6) presented comprehensive  information on such
measures as had been taken by the Government of Myanmar following the
recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry and action taken in that regard by
ILO.  The report, inter alia, notes that in spite of the Commission's
recommendations, the exaction of forced or compulsory labour by the authorities
continued and the attention of the Government was drawn to the "relevant and
consistent evidence of the persistence of forced labour" in Myanmar.

46.     The evidence presented to the ILO Governing Body also shows that a
considerable number of orders addressed to village heads were issued by
military officers demanding the supply, without fail, of a number of
"servants", "rotation servants" or "volunteer workers".  Further, the report
indicates that it is often specified that if the village head fails to comply,
it would be entirely his or her responsibility and would be severely punished. 
While the focus of the report of the Commission of Inquiry was on forced
labour, it highlighted the human rights violations suffered by the various
ethnic groups in Myanmar in general.  The human rights violations recorded
include extrajudicial killings, rape, torture, ill-treatment and forced
relocation.  

47.     With respect to the right to form and join trade unions, although
Myanmar ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to
Organize Convention, 1948 (No. 87) in 1955, the competent organ of ILO reports
that workers and employers in Myanmar do not enjoy the right to join
organizations of their own choosing.  Furthermore, such organizations do not
have the right to join federations and confederations or to affiliate with
international organizations without impediments.

48.     The issue of freedom of association and protection of the right to
organize has again been discussed before the ILO Committee on the Application
of Standards and the Committee of Experts.  Both committees have deplored the
absence of any progress towards the application of this fundamental Convention
despite their repeated calls upon the Government for over a decade.  

49.     In the absence of genuine cooperation on the part of the Government and
the total absence of progress in the application of this convention, the
Committee on the Application of Standards has noted in a special paragraph of
its report the continued failure of the Government of Myanmar to implement the
Convention.  Both the Committee on the Application of Standards and the
Committee of Experts have strongly urged the Government of Myanmar to adopt, as
a matter of urgency, the measures and mechanisms necessary to ensure, both in
legislation and  actual practice, the right of workers to establish, without
previous authorization, and to join, subject only to the rules of the
organizations concerned, first-level unions, federations and confederations of
their own choosing for the furtherance and defence of their interests and to
ensure the right of such organizations to affiliate with international
organizations.  The Government of Myanmar was invited by the Committee on the
Applications of Standards to consider appropriate forms of ILO assistance to
ensure that real progress was achieved by 2000 in the observance of its
obligations under this fundamental convention.


V.  THE GENDER PERSPECTIVE

A.  Violence against women

50.     In a previous report (E/CN.4/1999/35) the Special Rapporteur identified
some of the problems that affect especially women and children in Myanmar and
expressed his concern over the situation.  Because rape and abuses are a
regular feature in the mode of operation of the army in its campaign of
incursions into the insurgency zones or else in the relocation sites, women and
children continue to seek refuge within and outside the country.  As those
abuses continue to devastate the lives of many, they migrate.  Many women are
reported to fall through the safety net of refugee camps along the borders and
into the hands of traffickers or become victims of other forms of
exploitation.  Recent reports received by the Special Rapporteur indicate that
such abuses and their consequences afflict women from several ethnic groups in
general and the Rohingyas in particular.

51.     As an ethnic group, it is said that the Rohingyas continue to suffer
from the consequences of discrimination and gross abuses.  They practice
Islam.  Many generations ago they migrated from East Bengal.  They are denied
citizenship, as explained in the Special Rapporteur's previous reports.  While
Rohingya women, men and children are all affected, the women are at particular
risk of exploitation by traffickers luring them into becoming sex workers or to
"sweatshops" working as underpaid labour . 

52.     The Special Rapporteur's attention has been drawn to the interview
of  a
19-year-old educated Rohingya woman who complained that "the major problem is
rape.  Rape is very common.  We are not respected.  That is why women are too
afraid to leave their homes and even work outside.  Often the military kidnap
girls and take them to their camps.  They are only released after being gang
raped ... and assaulted."

53.     According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR), six major circumstances constituted the "push factor" for the
outflow some years ago of the Rohingyas from Myanmar:  (1) the lack of
citizenship and, by extension, nationality rights; (2) imposed restrictions on
movement by the Myanmar authorities; (3) forced labour and portering for the
army; (4) compulsory food donations, extortion and arbitrary taxation; (5) land
confiscation or relocation; and (6) deliberate food (rice) shortages in
combination with high prices.  These factors, coupled with systematic human
rights violations and imposed underdevelopment, led to the mass exodus of
Rohingyas.

54.     The General Assembly, in resolution 49/166, defined the practice of
trafficking as the "illicit and clandestine movement of persons across national
and international borders, largely from developing countries and some countries
with economies in transition, with the end goal of forcing women and girl
children into sexually or economically oppressive and exploitative situations
from the profit of recruiters, traffickers and crime syndicates, as well as
other illegal activities related to trafficking, such as forced domestic
labour, false marriages, clandestine employment and false adoption".

55.     The Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and
consequences, transmitted to the Government of Myanmar last June information on
alleged instances of violence against women and, in particular, alleged
violations of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women, the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949, and Protocol II Additional to the
Geneva Convention.

56.     Examples of the cases that have been brought to the attention of the
Government of Myanmar by the Special Rapporteur on violence against women,
include the following:  Naw May Oo Paw, who was forced to pay soldiers with
rice and other food to avoid working as a porter; the wives of Bo Pha Palaw Pho
and Bo Kyaw Hair, two Karen National Union leaders, forced to carry extra-heavy
loads for the army to the point of becoming unconscious; Nam Nu, who was
allegedly kidnapped by MI officers and later beaten during interrogation; and
Mugha Lwee Paw, who was allegedly arrested twice by soldiers and tortured. 


B.  Forced labour

57.     There are many reports of forced labour of women.  Women are said to be
regularly taken from their homes and forced to undertake manual labour for the
army.  This labour involves cooking, cleaning, digging ditches, building
bridges and roads, and carrying heavy loads.  Moreover, they are allegedly
beaten if they are unable to work or become tired; they are left behind in the
jungle if they become unconscious from beatings or fatigue and are
malnourished.


C.  Arbitrary detention

58.     Many reports indicate that police and intelligence officers use
rape and
sexual harassment in order to extract information from women in detention. 
Women are allegedly beaten, starved, and kept in solitary confinement while in
detention.


V.  CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

A.  Conclusions

59.     The Special Rapporteur, as in his previous reports to the General
Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights, regrets that in spite of the
Government's recent indications that "serious consideration" would be given to
a visit by him, he has not so far been given permission to enter the country. 
He therefore has to rely on his personal interviews with refugees or other
displaced persons as well as valuable information given to him by various
organizations and institutions, both governmental and non-governmental, as well
as by individual Governments. 

60.     A most welcome feature has been the resumption of cooperation by the
Government in relation to the valuable work of the International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC) which is now able to operate in accordance with its own
procedures, as the Special Rapporteur has already been able to highlight in his
last interim report to the General Assembly. 

61.     No concrete progress, most unfortunately, can be reported on the
general
situation of human rights in Myanmar.  On the contrary, repression of political
and civil rights continues in Myanmar, including summary or arbitrary
executions, abuse of women and children by soldiers and the imposition of
oppressive measures directed in particular at ethnic and religious minorities,
including the continuing use of forced labour and relocation.

62.     Persecution of the democratic opposition, in particular members of the
NLD, continues as in previous years, including long prison sentences and the
use of intimidation and harassment.

63.     Well-documented reports and testimonies continue to be received by the
Special Rapporteur which indicate that human rights violations continue to
occur, as in the last decade.  

These include extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, torture,
portering and forced labour, particularly in the context of the "development"
programmes and of counter-insurgency operations in ethnic areas.

64.     With regard to the exaction of forced or compulsory labour, the Special
Rapporteur reiterates, as in his previous reports, that information he has
received from refugees and displaced persons indicates that the practice of
forced labour continues, although there is an official order directing that the
offending provisions of the the Village Act and the Town Act should not be
enforced.  No law has been passed to make forced labour an offence and no
prosecution against those exacting forced labour is possible.  Impunity remains
a serious problem.


B.  Recommendations

65.     As no concrete progress can be discerned from the totality of the
information provided to the Special Rapporteur, he considers it necessary to
reiterate the recommendations he made in paragraphs 80 to 83 of his last report
to the Commission on Human Rights (E/CN.4/1999/35) and paragraphs 50 to 55 of
his last interim report to the General Assembly (A/54/440).


-----

1  The report has been compiled by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) on
the basis of the work of a tribunal established to assess evidence of human
rights violations, particularly concerning the right to food, committed against
the people of Myanmar by their Government.
                                

[END OF REPORT]

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