Reforming Telecommunications in Burma

By Human Rights Watch • May 20, 2013

Human Rights and Responsible Investment in Mobile and the Internet

Summary

In January 2013, the Burmese government announced plans to liberalize the country’s telecommunications sector and invited bids for two nationwide telecommunications licenses.[1] Successful bidders will be allowed to provide a range of services, including mobile and Internet services.[2] The Burmese government has promised to significantly reduce the cost of mobile phones and has set an ambitious goal of 50 percent mobile penetration by 2016, a remarkable increase from current penetration estimated at 5-10 percent.[3]

Human Rights Watch has long believed that Internet and mobile technologies have an enormous potential to advance human rights. Developing Burma’s information and communications technology (ICT) and telecommunications sectors could enhance economic growth and civic participation in a country that has been closed for decades. Email, social media, and cell phones have become essential tools for journalists, human rights defenders, and civil society groups worldwide because these technologies support instant communication, access to information, and effective organization on the ground. However, these benefits may be jeopardized unless governments and corporations safeguard the ability of people to use new technologies freely and without fear of reprisal. Improved telecommunications networks can become powerful tools for censorship and illegal surveillance, absent protections for human rights and other critical measures.

Yet Burma’s democratic reforms remain incomplete and the government and its security forces continue to commit serious human rights violations.[4] Companies entering Burma face a significant risk of contributing to abuses, particularly in sectors, such as telecommunications and the Internet, that have been linked with past abuses and where rights-based reforms to date have been inadequate. Opening up these sectors to international investment raises the risk that the government may seek to involve technology companies in illegal surveillance, censorship, and other abuses.

In this report, Human Rights Watch has outlined several steps necessary to promote adequate human rights protections for Internet and mobile phone users in Burma, and the actions needed to foster responsible investment in Burma’s telecommunications and Internet sectors. Telecommunications and ICT companies should not move forward in Burma until such measures are in place, in view of the human rights risks. The analysis and recommendations contained in this report are based on research conducted from February to April 2013. The report’s analysis focuses on laws most relevant to Burma’s telecommunications and ICT sectors, and does not provide a comprehensive treatment of Burma’s laws, legal system or constitution.

Telecommunications and Internet liberalization could create an opportunity for the government and companies to adopt appropriate standards to safeguard human rights. The Burmese government should expeditiously repeal draconian laws enacted by the former military government that have been used to restrict access to ICTs and mobile phones and prosecute journalists and activists for their peaceful online activity. The government should also enact new legal protections for the rights to freedom of expression, access to information, and privacy, including in a new telecommunications law currently being considered by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the parliament.

Consistent with the internationally recognized responsibility of all business enterprises to respect human rights, as reflected in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, companies should act to avoid complicity in human rights violations.[5] To respect the rights of the people of Burma, international telecommunications and ICT companies should take meaningful steps at the outset to assess the human rights impact and address any harm that may result from their operations. They should conduct what is often referred to as “human rights due diligence” and adopt robust safeguards to prevent and address abuses, including with respect to the rights to freedom of expression, access to information, and privacy.

Download the full report here.