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World Refugee Day

June 20, 2018/in News

June 20, 2018 HURFOM: Today on World Refugee Day, HURFOM honors all refugees, asylum-seekers, and internally displaced people around the world. HURFOM calls on governments, ethnic armed groups, civil society organisations, donors, and the international community to end the human rights violations which are causing people to flee their homes, and to aid all refugees, asylum-seekers […]

The United States is Quitting the UN Human Rights Council. Here’s Why That’s a Bad Idea

June 20, 2018/in News

By: Mark Leon Goldberg on June 19, 2018 One day after being criticized by the top UN human rights official for its policy of separating children from their parents at the border, the United States announced that it is withdrawing from the main UN human rights organ, the Human Rights Council. The timing is eyebrow […]

World Refugee Day

June 20, 2018/in News

The United States is Quitting the UN Human Rights Council. Here’s Why That’s a Bad Idea

June 20, 2018/in News

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World Refugee Day

June 20, 2018/in News

June 20, 2018

HURFOM: Today on World Refugee Day, HURFOM honors all refugees, asylum-seekers, and internally displaced people around the world.

HURFOM calls on governments, ethnic armed groups, civil society organisations, donors, and the international community to end the human rights violations which are causing people to flee their homes, and to aid all refugees, asylum-seekers and displaced people.

According to the Global Peace Index there are currently 68 million refugees and internally displaced people in the world, the most since records began following WWII.

In Burma, refugee and IDP crises are escalating across the country.

There are gross violations of human rights happening right now in Rakhine, Kachin, and Shan states in particular.

Over 700,000 ethnic Rohingya have been driven from their home in Rakhine State since August 2017. The UN described the attacks as ‘a textbook example of ethnic cleansing’. Human Rights Watch documented widespread gang rapes carried out by members of the Burmese military against Rohingya women and girls, as well as killings, arbitrary arrests, and mass arson in hundreds of Rohingya villages carried out by Burmese security forces. The Burmese military has denied all accusations. Some 40,000 Rohingya women and girls living in refugee camps in Bangladesh are pregnant and due to give birth in the coming weeks. As the monsoon rains hit, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees currently living in refugee camps are in danger from flooding; several fatalities have already been reported.

In Kachin State, the conflict between the Burmese military and the Kachin Independence Army has escalated since January. A number of civilians have been reported killed, and thousands have fled their homes since the start of the year, according to the OHCHA. The UN estimates that there are now around 103,000 displaced people in camps and settlements in Kachin and northern Shan states as a result of the conflict.

HURFOM stands in solidarity with all displaced people in Burma and surrounding countries.

While these gross human rights violations are causing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes around Burma, and must be addressed as a priority, it is important also to remember the ongoing plight of people who have been displaced for years. IDP camps in Mon State – where some people have lived for decades, and to which ever more recently-displaced people continue to move – have been neglected, and their funding has been cut in recent years.

Until the government addresses the root causes of displacement, people will continue to be forced to flee their homes, and the safe, voluntary return of displaced people will be not be possible.

Land confiscation is a major reason many people leave their homes. Land confiscations have increased since government reforms started in 2011, as the government has encouraged inward investment and megaprojects. Encouragement of megaprojects and inward investment has encouraged human rights violations, as well as increasing food insecurity and forced migration.

“I lost ten acres of cashew-nut plantation. They [the army] ordered the residents to move out. But the army hasn’t done anything with my land. They haven’t built any buildings. They just destroyed the cashew-nut plants. … Earlier, when a company built a road to the seaport I also lost my land [because of the construction]. I got compensation that time. But I didn’t get any compensation when the army confiscated my land.” U S—, April 2017

Many people flee their homes because of having to do forced labour for the Burma army.

“Back in our village we were abused by the Burmese soldiers. They were violent and forced us to do porterage. We couldn’t make a living so we decided to leave the village. The porterage took one or two months, so poor families found it very difficult to make a living.” Daw A—, April 2017

One woman told us how the Burmese military forced even mothers with new-born babies to cut rocks for the railway, and how people were sexually abused and beaten, sometimes to death.

“When they were building the railway from Ye to Tavoy, the Burmese military forced us to work on the railway. We had to cut through rock to make way for the railroad. Even mothers with new-born babies had to go and work for them, and had to take their own food. If we did not go to work they would beat us. The soldiers abused the girls. They would take off their longgyis at night. All of my family were beaten by the Burmese soldiers. My father was beaten so hard he could not chew food and vomited blood. My father passed away because of that injury.” Ma K—, April 2017

Others told us how they fled because of army torture.

“I’ve been living here [in Halockhani] for 16 years. In the past, I had been appointed as a village administrator by the Mon community, so when the Burmese army came to the village, they tortured me. … If I had stayed in the village I would have lost my life.” Nai K—, May 2017

Displaced people we interviewed are clear about what they want for the future.

Housing, property and land rights must be acknowledged and restored. The root causes of displacement, including the impunity for human rights violators and the lack of rule of law, must be addressed before there can be safe and voluntary return for displaced people.

“The previous government confiscated our land but the incumbent government has to take responsibility. Even the parliament has to take responsibility. They should meet with the victims of land confiscation and ask they what they want to happen to them. If they do that, then people can have a chance to find truth [justice].” U S—, April 2017

As a priority, HURFOM calls on governments, aid agencies, and the international community to restore aid to the IDP camps and resettlement sites.

Aid has been cut in recent years. Daw H— told HURFOM that she has lived in Halockhani for the past 20 years. “We were supported with rice at the beginning. But they cut the support later. They haven’t supported us for the past two years.”

Recommendations

To the Burmese government to:

Ensure that the voluntary return of refugees and IDPs complies with international law including the UN Principles on Housing, Land and Property Rights for Refugees and Displaced Persons (‘Pinheiro Principles’) and international best practices with respect to voluntary return; and
Acknowledge ethnic concerns regarding land and land policy and initiate reforms to provide more HLP security for small-scale farmers and villagers from eastern Burma’s ethnic regions as well as to secure the durable return of IDPs and refugees.

To the Burma army to:

Immediately halt all military offensives in all ethnic areas and end human rights abuses; and
Immediately halt all land confiscations and return the land to the people or adequately compensate them for the confiscated land.

To Ethnic Armed Organisations to:

Develop a comprehensive, clear and shared position on IDPs’ and refugees’ return and rehabilitation in consultation with the IDPs and refugees, local communities and CBOs;
Develop a comprehensive, clear and shared position on HLP rights in consultation with the local communities, CBOs, IDPs and refugees.

To the international community and donor community to:

Support Burma’s ethnic communities to achieve their aspirations for equality, self-determination and establishment of a genuine federal union;
Commit to supporting and advocating for community-led, rights-based movements;
Ensure local ownership and participation of ethnic communities in decision making of all aspects of planning and management of aid and protection projects targeting refugees and IDPs;
Continue funding EAOs peace building activities, EAO-linked service providers as well as local ethnic CSOs/CBOs along the Thailand-Burma border; and
Ensure that mega development projects are implemented with the full, prior and informed consent of the potentially affected communities including holding meaningful consultations, being transparent, and making the information accessible in local languages for the potentially affected communities prior to the initiation of the projects.

The United States is Quitting the UN Human Rights Council. Here’s Why That’s a Bad Idea

June 20, 2018/in News

By: Mark Leon Goldberg on June 19, 2018

One day after being criticized by the top UN human rights official for its policy of separating children from their parents at the border, the United States announced that it is withdrawing from the main UN human rights organ, the Human Rights Council.

The timing is eyebrow raising, but this was not an entirely surprising decision. One year ago, Nikki Haley visited the Human Rights Council in Geneva and issued an ultimatum: unless the Council reformed to her liking, the United States would pull out.

Haley’s criticisms of the council center around two indisputable facts: that the Council frequently focuses Israel and that some members of the Council are countries with poor human rights records. But rather than remain on the Council to defend Israel and try and prevent countries with poor human rights records from influencing the work of the Council, the United States is calling it quits.

By withdrawing from the Human Rights Council, the United States is ceding yet another tool of American global leadership

Haley’s criticisms of the Human Rights Council are as old as the Council itself. When the Council was created in 2005, then UN ambassador John Bolton lobbied successfully against the Bush administration joining it. After the 2008 elections, the United States opted to join, concluding that it could better steer the work of the Council from the inside, including defending Israel, rather than from the sidelines.

Evidence suggests that this approach tangibly advanced American interests at the Council.

A report last year by the Council on Foreign Relations examined the work of the Council in years in which the United States served as a member and the years in which it did not. It found that Israel-specific resolutions decreased by more than half once the US joined the Council.

The CFR report also shows how country-specific mandates were added to the Council’s to-do list when the US was on the council, compared to the years in which it was not.

In other words, when the United States was an active participant at the Council, the Council reduced its focus on Israel and expanded its focus on other countries with problematic human rights records. This suggests that the stated reasons for the US withdrawal from the Council will become something of a fulfilling prophecy: with the US indifferent to the Council, the Council is more likely to adopt resolutions and measures that the United States finds contrary to its interests.

This move by the US is intended to discredit the UN Human Rights Council. In fact, the Council has a decent record of upholding human rights around the world.

Israel and Palestine are not the sum of the work of the Human Rights Council. Rather, in its 12 years of existence, the Council has amassed a decent track record, both of investigating specific human rights abuses and global norm setting.

In 2011, with strong support from the United States, the Human Rights Council passed an historic resolution that equated LGBT rights with human rights. This had the effect of mainstreaming LGBT rights into the broader UN human rights portfolio. This included giving then-secretary general Ban Ki Moon the breathing room he needed to more robustly engage in LGBT rights issues, even though some more conservative UN member states remained adamantly opposed. (In 2015, he was awarded the Harvey Milk award for his work on behalf of LGBT rights).

Just last year, the Human Rights Council approved the creation of a new special human rights “rapporteur” whose work focuses on rights issues around sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Human Rights Council has also been a platform for constructive engagement on issues that are otherwise paralyzed by big power rivalries at the Security Council. Syria is a good example here. With the Security Council unable to take any action, the Human Rights Council approved creating a commission of inquiry to document human rights abuses committed in the context of the Syria conflict. Every six months, the Commission of Inquiry releases a new report detailing abuses and identifying perpetrators. This obviously has not stopped the slaughter in Syria–but it has created robust documentary evidence of crimes committed in Syria that could be used in future war crimes proceedings. It is also a demonstration that, despite inaction at the Security Council, the United Nations can still be a player on these key global issues.

The Council has also routinely shined a spotlight on neglected human rights issues, such as regime abuses against its citizens in Eritrea and Belarus. It is the only UN entity that consistently maintains focus on human rights abuses by regimes that are not on the radar of the news media or are of particular interest to powerful forces at the UN. In these situations it does its job–and does its job well. Again, to quote the CFR report:

“Two successive terms of U.S. membership on the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), before the mandatory one-year hiatus, have improved the body’s performance in several ways. These improvements include strengthening the council’s commitment to country-level action, fortifying norms that underpin fundamental freedoms and assist at-risk populations, rebalancing the human rights agenda, and building momentum for the defense of civil society.”

To the extent that US withdrawal from the council serves to undermine the council itself, the people who will suffer will end up being Eritreans and Belarusians who are being oppressed by their government.

US and International Human Rights Groups Do Not Support this Move

The American decision to leave the Human Rights Council is being criticized by human rights and humanitarian groups that have long standing commitments to upholding human dignity around the world.

Forfeiting the U.S. seat on the UN Human Rights Council only serves to empower actors on the Council, like Russia and China, that do not share American values on the preeminence of universal human rights – an assertion backed up by evidence from the 2006 U.S. Council withdrawal. Further, no other likeminded country seeking to occupy the United States’ former seat can realistically match Washington’s global diplomatic and political footprint. In short, without strategic U.S. engagement at the Council as a member, the U.S. loses a platform to influence the course of human rights globally for the better and the victims of human rights abuse globally will fall prey to the machinations of governments that will take advantage of this strategic vacuum.

That statement was signed by The Better World Campaign, CARE, Council for Global Equality, Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK), Freedom House, Human Rights Campaign, Human Rights First, Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, PEN America, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Save the Children and United Nations Association – USA.

These groups work day in, day out to promote human rights around the world and they argue that the US withdrawal is harmful to their cause.

That is because this decision is antithetical to US interests and serves to undermine an already fragile global human rights regime. The United States doesn’t stand to gain much from leaving the Human Rights Council and the Trump administration is committing yet another unforced error by ceding this platform for upholding human rights around the world.

www.undispatch.com

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ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.

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By withdrawing from the Human Rights Council, the United States is ceding yet another tool of American global leadership

This move by the US is intended to discredit the UN Human Rights Council. In fact, the Council has a decent record of upholding human rights around the world.

US and International Human Rights Groups Do Not Support this Move

ND Burma

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