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Posts Tagged ‘Human Rights’ (685 found)
‘With Only Our Voices, What Can We Do?’: Land Confiscation and Local Response in Southeast Myanmar
ORCHID HOTEL, YANGON – Three years after the 2012 preliminary ceasefire negotiations between the Myanmar government and the Karen National Union (KNU), reported instances of land confiscation continue to increase in southeast Myanmar […]
• • •‘With Only Our Voices, What Can We Do?’: Land Confiscation and Local Response in Southeast Myanmar
ORCHID HOTEL, YANGON – Three years after the 2012 preliminary ceasefire negotiations between the Myanmar government and the Karen National Union (KNU), reported instances of land confiscation continue to increase in southeast Myanmar. In the 2015 report, ‘With only our voices, what can we do?’, KHRG highlights four main land use types which lead to land confiscation, including infrastructure projects, natural resource extraction, commercial agriculture projects, and military activities. Based on testimony from local villagers, the Myanmar government; domestic corporate actors; and Tatmadaw and Karen ethnic armed groups (EAGs) are all identified as being complicit in the confiscation of land from local communities in southeast Myanmar. However, local villagers report using a variety of strategies to prevent and mitigate the impacts of land confiscation, such as reaching out to civil society organisations (CSOs) and the media, negotiating with actors involved in projects, and lobbying both the Myanmar government and Karen EAGs […]
Truth and Justice for Ko Par Gyi
I am seeking justice for my husband. My husband was captured, tortured and killed by the military in October 2014, in Kyaikmayaw in Myanmar’s Mon State. His name was Aung Kyaw Naing. He is also known as Ko Par Gyi. He was a freelance reporter […]
• • •Thailand/Burma: Sea Nomads Vulnerable to Abuse
Far from the idyllic image that tourism promotes of the Moken people, these sea nomads face increasing restrictions and attacks at sea, and systematic discrimination on land. By effectively denying them citizenship, the Thai and Burmese governments make the Moken easy targets for exploitation and other threats to their very existence […]
• • •Burma 2014 Human Rights Report
Burma’s parliamentary government is headed by President Thein Sein. In 2012 the country held largely transparent and inclusive by-elections in which the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party, chaired by Aung San Suu Kyi, won 43 of 45 contested seats of a total 664 seats in the legislature. Constitutional provisions grant one-quarter of all national and one-third of all regional and state parliamentary seats to active-duty military appointees and provide that the military indefinitely assume power over all branches of the government should the president declare a national state of emergency. The ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) continued to hold an overwhelming majority of the seats in the national parliament and state and regional assemblies, and active-duty military officers continued to wield authority at many levels of government. There is no civilian control of the military; police forces also report to the military through the minister of home affairs […]
• • •Launch of Suaram Human Rights Report 2014: Six Worrying Trends Under Najib’s Administration
SUARAM is pleased to launch its 2014 Human Rights Report of Malaysia today. Since its first launch in 1998, SUARAM has without fail published an annual human rights report which offer comprehensive documentation and analysis of the human rights landscape, a report that is much awaited by local civil society and international human rights organisations […]
• • •The Intersection of HADR and the Rohingya Refugee Crisis
Now that Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed to provide temporary refuge for Rohingya refugees, the recent humanitarian crisis is moving toward a longer term relief and resettlement operation. But the sequence of events leading up to the short-term relief operation demonstrated serious limitations in how regional actors respond to politically sensitive humanitarian challenges. The actions and words of Burma and the other ASEAN countries, as well as those of the United States, are important indicators of the current state of multilateral organizations, international law, and the support of human dignity. Most notably, the Rohingya refugee crisis should be used to shift the debate on the future of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) exercises between the United States and its allies […]
• • •Repatriation fears mar Refugee Day in Thai border camps
Tha Song Yang, Thailand – An organisation representing the ethnic Karen minority in Myanmar has warned against the hasty repatriation of more than 130,000 refugees currently residing in Thai border camps […]
Encouraging AICHR to Address the Urgent Issue of Irregular Migration Crisis in Asean
Jakarta, 17 June 2015. The Representative of Indonesia to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), Rafendi Djamin, encouraged the AICHR as the overarching Human Rights institution in ASEAN to discuss and address the humanitarian and human rights crisis – migration flow and seafaring refugees – which has become increasingly prevalent in ASEAN […]
• • •Caught Between State Censorship and Self-Censorship: Prosecution and Intimidation of Media Workers in Myanmar
Myanmar’s media landscape has seen a radical change since the country embarked on a series of important political, economic and social reforms, announced by President Thein Sein in March 2011. The lifting of pre-publication censorship, the release of imprisoned journalists and greater space for freedom of expression have seen the development of an increasingly vibrant and diverse media. These media reforms have been lauded by many in the international community, who are keen to point to increased media freedoms as one of the hallmarks – and successes – of Myanmar’s reform process […]
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