Human rights activists in Myanmar have criticized President U Thein Sein’s request to block submission of a human rights report by the European Union to the United Nations General Assembly during his participation in the 10th Asia-Europe Meeting in Milan, Italy.
20 October 2014| Written by Hein Ko Soe | Published in Myanmar
Human rights activists in Myanmar have criticized President U Thein Sein’s request to block submission of a human rights report by the European Union to the United Nations General Assembly during his participation in the 10th Asia-Europe Meeting in Milan, Italy.
The president told participants during the October 16-17 meeting in Italy that Myanmar has not received recognition by the international community for its remarkable progress in improving human rights.
Equality Myanmar Executive Director U Aung Myo Min said, “The reports should be submitted to the UN General Assembly. In actuality, the people’s life is not secure due to riots, and the authorities do not tackle the human rights violations of the military and police personnel.”
Myanmar remains high on the world list of human rights violators. As a result, UN officials have a special task force to investigate rights violations in Myanmar.
Myanmar rights groups continued to point to rights violations in their country.
“The Army still commits sexual harassment against ethnic women and confiscates farmland using the excuse that the property is needed for development,” Daw Susanna Hla Hla Soe of the Karen Women’s Empowerment Group said.
The Women’s League of Burma claims the Army committed over 300 cases of sexual harassment against women in the Kayin, Kachin and Shan states in 2013, and says the government has not solved these problems.
U Aung Myo Min claimed that since its establishment in 2013, the Myanmar National Commission for Human Rights has received over 7,000 rights complaints but has not dealt with them in a transparent manner.
Myanmar lags behind other regional countries, coming in fifth in the establishment of human rights commissions after Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia.