The Decree on the Right to Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession

By Article 19 • September 20, 2012

The Decree on the Right to Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession is one of the first laws governing civil and political rights to be adopted since the election of a quasi-civilian government in November 2010. ARTICLE 19’s analysis of the law finds the law to be inconsistent with the right to freedom of expression and the right to assembly.

Myanmar has neither signed nor ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights or other principal human rights treaties. Nevertheless, the guarantees to the right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, as provided for by Article 364 of the Constitution of Myanmar, allow a wide scope for interpretation, and international standards regarding these rights should provide guidance to such an interpretation.

In the analysis, ARTICLE 19 appreciates the Decree’s recognition of the state’s duty to protect assembly participants. However, the requirement for permission to hold an assembly, the grounds for denying permission, the lack of a court appeal and the absence of guarantees for media access to assemblies are problematic and must be urgently revised.

Download the analysis in English here.

စာတမ္းျမန္မာဘာသာကို ဤေနရာတြင္ ေဒါင္းလုပ္ရယူႏိုင္ပါသည္။