Today, Burma/Myanmar’s human rights situation was reviewed by the United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva. The report of the Myanmar Government’s delegation includes details of government activities to fulfill their commitments from the first UPR cycle but fails to take note serious ongoing human rights violations and challenges into account […]
• • •When the people of Burma go to the polling stations on November 8th, for the first time since independence the majority of Rohingya will not be allowed to vote. In another first, as all Rohingya candidates for the national parliament were rejected by the Union Election Commission (UEC), there will be no Rohingya MPs in Parliament […]
• • •On 27 October 2015, the Union Election Commission (UEC) announced that elections would be cancelled in four townships in Shan State as a result of the newly intensified fighting between the Burma Army and the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N). According to the Shan State Progressive Party, the political wing of the SSA-N, the Burma Army was seen to ramp up attacks against the SSA-N after they deliberated that they would not be signing the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement […]
• • •Burma Campaign UK is calling on the British government to back a UN Commission of Inquiry into the human rights situation in Rakhine State, Burma […]
• • •(Rangoon) Political parties contesting the 8 November election have failed to prioritize or commit to core human rights issues, a new report released by FIDH today shows. The report, titled “Half Empty: Burma’s political parties and their human rights commitments,” is the first-ever survey of the country’s political parties’ attitudes toward human rights issues […]
• • •(BANGKOK, October 29, 2015)—There is strong evidence that the government of Myanmar is responsible for genocide against Rohingya Muslims, according to a legal analysis prepared for Fortify Rights by the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School. In light of the findings, Fortify Rights said the United Nations must immediately establish a Commission of Inquiry into widespread and systematic human rights violations in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, including into whether the crime of genocide has occurred […]
• • •NEW YORK/GENEVA (29 October 2015) – UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, called on all those in positions of authority in Myanmar to ensure that respect for the human rights of all must be at the core of the historic elections due to take place in 10 days’ time […]
• • •The process of advanced voting in Burma has begun amid much confusion and contradiction. According to The Myanmar Times, election commission officials have offered countering details regarding the timeline of the advanced voting and foreign observers have reported being unaware that the process had even begun […]
• • •WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor today regarding democratic elections in Burma […]
• • •On 14 October 2015, plainclothes police arrested Patrick Khum Jaa Lee on the grounds that he had shared a photo on Facebook that was deemed to be insulting to the Burma Army Chief, Min Aung Hlaing. A similar incident occurred earlier last week, in which 25-year-old Chaw Sandi Htun was arrested and charged under Article 500 of the Criminal Procedure Code for defamation along with the 2004 Electronic Transactions Law for using Facebook to compare the new colour of the Burma Army uniforms to that of Aung San Suu Kyi’s htamein (A traditional sarong worn by women in Burma) […]
• • •