Presentation on Recent Developments on Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC) Complaints Handling, Investigations and Cooperation with the Special Procedures of the United Nations

By Myanmar National Human Rights Commission • May 31, 2013

The following is a presentation by Win Mra, Chairman of the MNHRC:

Introduction

My presentation has two parts;

First part has to do with significant developments of the MNHRC in 2012. A second concern how the protection works, that is the complaint handling, are being carried out and what are the difficulties that are, in our view, impeding the progress in this aspect.

Developments

The year 2012 has been an eventful one. We had many developments. Mostly they were encouraging. A few, however, were not so encouraging and even made us wonder what we should do. For instance, the session of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw held on 16 March 2012 decided on the cancellation of designation of Myanmar National Human Rights Commission as central level organization and its expenditure proposal in 2012-2013 fiscal year Union Budget. This had many implications for the work of the Commission. The Commission could not start the recruitment of its staff as planned. Fortunately, within three months, the President Office was able to find ways around these difficulties and managed to give us a quarterly grant of an amount (US $72,812) adequate for the Commission’s expenditures. As a result, we have recruited 14 of our own staff and planning to recruit more.

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