There is no plan to submit a Myanmar human rights report to the ASEAN Summit, U Sit Myaing, vice chairman of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission told Mizzima on November 9.
Written by Hein Ko Soe | Published in Myanmar
There is no plan to submit a Myanmar human rights report to the ASEAN Summit, U Sit Myaing, vice chairman of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission told Mizzima on November 9.
Myanmar is the fifth nation to have formed a human rights commission in the ASEAN region.
“We have no report assessing the human rights situation of the country. There is no plan to do so. I think that [providing a report] may be the responsibility of the ASEAN Human Rights Committee,” said U Sit Myaing.
ASEAN affairs expert from Thailand Kavi Chong kittavorn noted that Indonesia and Thailand distributed their human rights reports to regional countries in 2011 and 2009, when they held the chairmanship of ASEAN.
He said it was important to watch whether Myanmar submits a human rights report to the 25th ASEAN Summit as it had recently formed their own human rights commission.
U Aung Lynn, director-general of the ASEAN Affairs Department explained to Mizzima that these reports were submitted by the countries themselves. “They are not included in the agenda of the Summit,” he said.
The International Human Rights Department of US-based Harvard Law School released a report on November 7 that claimed that some senior Myanmar army officers violated human rights during the time of the military junta and some are serving in the current government.
The United Nations secretary general’s special envoy on human rights makes on inspection tour of Myanmar yearly to assess whether there have been any violation of human rights, the latest report offering a damning picture of the situation.
Myanmar President U Thein Sein requested the European Union at the recent Europe-Asian Meeting to refrain from sending a draft resolution on human rights in Myanmar to the UN General Assembly, claiming the situation has improved in the country since his government came to power.
Last modified on Monday, 10 November 2014 14:41