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ND-Burma Statement on International Human Rights Day:“We are ready to help deliver justice for Burma’s many victims of human rights violations”

December 11, 2017/in Press Releases and Statements

10 December 2017, Rangoon ND-Burma statement on International Human Rights Day: “We are ready to help deliver justice for Burma’s many victims of human rights violations” With over 6,000 human rights violations recorded since 2004, ND-Burma wants to help bring about justice and national reconciliation Thirteen years ago, 9 civil society organizations based on the […]

Myanmar Transitional Justice Issues and Initiatives

December 8, 2017/in News

MYANMAR Transitional Justice Issues and Initiatives Introduction Socio-historical context: conflict and repression Myanmar gained independence in January 1948, following the 1947 Panglong Conference. At this conference General Aung San along with Kachin, Shan, and Chin leaders overcame the divide-and-rule policy of the British by agreeing on ethnic equality within a Federal Union of Burma. However, […]

ND-Burma Statement on International Human Rights Day:“We are ready to help deliver justice for Burma’s many victims of human rights violations”

December 11, 2017/in Press Releases and Statements

Myanmar Transitional Justice Issues and Initiatives

December 8, 2017/in News

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ND-Burma Statement on International Human Rights Day:“We are ready to help deliver justice for Burma’s many victims of human rights violations”

December 11, 2017/in Press Releases and Statements

10 December 2017, Rangoon

ND-Burma statement on International Human Rights Day: “We are ready to help deliver justice for Burma’s many victims of human rights violations”

With over 6,000 human rights violations recorded since 2004, ND-Burma wants to help bring about justice and national reconciliation

Thirteen years ago, 9 civil society organizations based on the Thai-Burma border came together to form the Network for Human Rights Documentation Corporation (now the Network for Human Rights Documentation, or ND-Burma). Burma was ruled by a brutal military dictatorship and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi entering her tenth year under house arrest. There were well over a thousand political prisoners and the military was continuing its decades’ long campaign of brutal violence against Burma’s ethnic nationalities.

And yet the 9 groups who risked their lives to come together in 2004 knew it didn’t have to be this way, that what was happening to them, to their friends, families and communities was fundamentally wrong, and that they could change it. They were Karen, Shan, and Mon, as well as former political prisoners. They had spent their whole lives under military dictatorship, cut off from the rest of the world, yet they knew that every human being on earth is endowed with fundamental rights and freedoms.

Much has changed since 2004. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi now rules alongside her former jailers. Most of the political prisoners incarcerated then have been released.

Yet much remains the same. Burma’s jails are being filled once again, this time with journalists trying to hold the powerful to account. The military’s campaign of violence against ethnic nationalities continues unabated; ND-Burma has in fact documented an uptick in human rights violations since the civilian government took power. The country is once again facing international condemnation following military campaigns in Rakhine, Shan and Kachin.

In his 2004 report on Burma, the UN Special Rapporteur called for action to hold those guilty of human rights violations accountable. ND-Burma began its work gathering evidence for the day when Burma’s many victims of rights violations would finally see justice. Our database now holds some 6,000 cases. Our friends and colleagues in the many organisations that make up Burma’s formidable civil society have thousands more.

Human rights are universal, as is the pain when they are violated. A woman raped in Kachin suffers no less than one raped in Syria or Sweden. Only those in comfortable positions who can be certain their rights will never be abused would ever argue otherwise.

It is time to put an end to human rights abuses in Burma. It is time to end impunity and deliver justice.

In 2017, ND-Burma is a 13-member organization whose members represent a range of ethnic nationalities, women and the LGBTI community. We have been documenting human rights abuses and fighting for justice for victims since 2004.

Assistance Association for Political Prisoners – Burma
Kachin Development Networking Group
Human Rights Foundation of Monland
Kachin Women’s Association – Thailand
Ta’ang Women’s Organization
Ta’ang Students and Youth Organizatio
Tavoyan Women’s Union

Affiliate Members

All Arakan Students’ and Youths’ Congress
Chin Human Rights Organization
EarthRights International
Equality Myanmar
Lahu Women’s Organization
Pao Youth Organization

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Myanmar Transitional Justice Issues and Initiatives

December 8, 2017/in News

MYANMAR

Transitional Justice Issues and Initiatives

Introduction

Socio-historical context: conflict and repression

Myanmar gained independence in January 1948, following the 1947 Panglong Conference. At this conference General Aung San along with Kachin, Shan, and Chin leaders overcame the divide-and-rule policy of the British by agreeing on ethnic equality within a Federal Union of Burma. However, after General Aung San was assassinated in 1947, new leaders neglected the Panglong agreement. Armed conflicts soon broke out between ethnic armed groups and government forces, sparked by demands for self-determination and ethnic equality. After General Ne Winn’s 1962 coup, the civil war escalated. At the same time, repression inside Myanmar increased with widespread detention and torture of political dissidents, journalists, human rights activists, and anyone suspected of criticising the state.^[1]

In 1990, military leaders took power establishing the so-called State Law and Order Restoration Council. The Council pursued cease-fire agreements with some ethnic armed groups, such as the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in 1994. A new constitution in 2008 allowed the military regime to integrate some rebel groups into state-controlled Border Guard Forces under their command.[2] However, fighting continued in Kachin and northern Shan States, and after 17 years, the ceasefire with the KIA fell apart in 2011.[3]

Under the 2008 constitution, the military retains autonomy from civilian oversight and holds extensive power over the government and national security, with control of the Defense, Home Affairs, and Border Affairs Ministries. The armed forces are guaranteed 25% of parliamentary seats, providing an effective veto over any constitutional amendments, and are authorised to assume power in a national state of emergency.

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[1] AJAR, Legal Clinic Myanmar, and Wimutti Volunteer Group, “Briefing Paper: The legacy of mass torture and the challenge for reform in Myanmar,” 2016, at http://www.asia-ajar.org/files/Myanmar%20Briefing%20Paper%20-%20English.pdf

[2] “Elections, Transition and Conflict,” at http://www.mmpeacemonitor.org/background/ background-overview

[3] Report on the Human Rights Situation in Burma January-September 2011, at http://nd-burma.org/reports/report-on-the-human-rights-situation-in-burma-january-september-2011/

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ND Burma

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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ND-Burma statement on International Human Rights Day: “We are ready to help deliver justice for Burma’s many victims of human rights violations”

ND Burma

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