Myanmar was once known as steeped in history of kingdoms and dynasties, endowed with vast natural resources and an intelligentsia elite base most nations would envy. It is wedged between two of the most populous nations in the world, and a proud nation standing tall among its neighbors up till the mid-1960s. Now it is struggling to get rid of the least developed nation status, but it is not a stranger to human rights.
Myanmar cast one of the earliest affirmative votes in the run up to the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in December 1948. After independence from the British in January 1948, a period of democratic rule ensued that was interrupted in 1962 when the military took over power, socialist rule became the order of the day and human rights took a back seat.
From that period onward, human rights never took a forefront status until 2011, when the transition to a democratic government once again ushered in human rights.
Myanmar National Human Rights Commission
Myanmar took heavy criticism from Western countries for its human rights record and the recommendations of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) report in January 2011 made repeated references to the need to establish a National Human Rights Institution in the country. This led to the establishment of a Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC) in 2011.
The MNHRC came into existence by a presidential decree on 5 September 2011. Following the Paris Principles, its fifteen Members represented the principle of plurality and ethnic and gender balance. Its Members constituted representatives from the Rakhine, Chin, Kachin, Karen, Mon, Shan and Bamar ethnic groups. Different religions are represented including Christians, Muslims and Buddhists. For gender parity, the MNHRC has three lady commissioners. Myanmar became the fifth country among the Association of Southeast Asian Countries (ASEAN) member-countries to have established a National Human Rights Institution (NHRI). Other NHRIs in ASEAN are in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
The MNHRC has the mandate of promoting and safeguarding the fundamental rights of the citizens enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.
Since the MNHRC was formed under a presidential decree, which is not considered a best practice under the Paris Principles, it drafted in 2012 a National Human Rights Commission Law and lobbied the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Union Parliament) for its enactment. The Pyidaungsu Hluttaw enacted the law in March 2014.
The MNHRC was reconstituted in September 2014 under the new law with eleven members and the following mandates:
a. To effectively promote and protect the fundamental rights of the citizens enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar;
b. To create a society where human rights are respected and protected in recognition of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations;
c. To effectively promote and protect human rights contained in the international conventions, decisions, regional agreements and declarations related to human rights accepted by the State; and
d. To coordinate and cooperate with the international organizations, regional organizations, national statutory institutions, civil society and non-governmental organizations related to human rights.
Activities of MNHRC
The MNHRC endeavors to fulfill its mandates through the five divisions: Promotion and Education Division; Protection Division; International Relations Division; Legal Division; and the Planning and Administration Division.
a. Promotion and Education Division
After a lapse of nearly sixty years, the population at large had very little or no knowledge of human rights and thus it became the primary task of the MNHRC to promote and disseminate human rights knowledge.
From the very inception of the MNHRC, it has strived to disseminate human rights knowledge to all sectors of society including government officials from the union level ministries and organizations; officials in the office of the two houses of the parliament; members of the armed forces and the police forces; officials of the correction department; government agency officials at state, division and township levels. It also organizes training workshops on human rights with the cooperation of international agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society organizations (CSOs).
The MNHRC holds human rights education activities for people of all walks of life in 108 townships throughout the length and breadth of the country. As a measure of its coverage, the MNHRC reached out to Putao-Ma Chan Baw in the northernmost part, Kawthaung in the south, Tachileik and Mong Young in the east and Sittwe in the west. It also holds workshops (including focus group discussions) to allow the participation of people at the grassroots level.
It provides human rights lectures in all training courses of the Central Institute of Civil Services (CICS) in lower and upper Myanmar for those at the very basic junior level to the high ranking executive level. To-date, in all seven levels of training conducted by CICS, the MNHRC has imparted human rights knowledge and concept to over ten thousand trainees.
Upon the request of the MNHRC, the Ministry of Defense included a lecture on human rights in the four training courses it regularly holds. The training courses are held at the National Defense University for senior officers with the rank of Colonel, and also at the Staff College under the Ministry of Defense (the second highest educational level) that career military officers with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel are obliged to attend before promotion to higher ranks. Human rights lecture is also provided to majors and captains in the two combat training schools under the Ministry of Defense before taking up the responsibilities of battalion and company commanders.
b. Protection Division
The MNHRC receives communications on complaints of human rights violations, examines them and conveys findings to the relevant government departments and bodies for necessary action.
Through its complaint examination mechanism, the MNHRC uses its advisory function in requesting competent authorities to provide remedy to the human rights violations. Whenever necessary based on the seriousness of the complaints and in cases of systemic violations of human rights, the MNHRC conducts field visits.
In 2017, out of the 1,125 complaints received, the Complaint Division took action on 454 complaints. The rest did not meet the requirements of the MNHRC’s established procedures and were put on record.
The MNHRC has the mandate to inspect prisons, jails, detention centers, and places of confinement in order to ensure that persons imprisoned, detained or confined are treated humanely and in accordance with international and national human rights laws. Inspection teams from the Protection Division of the MNHRC visited twenty-six prisons, including the prison in Nay Pyi Taw, and made necessary recommendations mostly on problems related to human rights of prisoners. All visited prisons far exceeded their capacity, prompting the MNHRC to recommend the reduction of the prison population. Among the prison population, 46.53 percent of the prisoners are found to be offenders of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances law. The MNHRC recommended the construction of buildings or extensions to the existing ones to have enough space, and also adequate budget for the prisons. The MNHRC also recommended the setting up rehabilitation centers for drug offenders, instead of putting them in prison. This in the view of the MNHRC will greatly help towards the reduction of overcrowding in the prisons.
The inspection teams also visited labor camps (where prisoners sentenced with hard labor component do agricultural work) twenty-five times, fifty-three police detention centers, forty-five court detention centers and twelve hospital guard wards.
c. International Relations Division
The MNHRC is a full-fledged member of the Southeast Asian National Human Rights Institutions Forum (SEANF), an associate member of Asia-Pacific Forum of the National Human Rights Institutions (APF) and holds a “B” status with Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI).
It coordinates and cooperates with international organizations, regional organizations, national statutory institutions, civil society and non-governmental organizations related to human rights. Its International Relations Division undertakes the following activities:
- Preparation for the participation of the Chairperson and a Commissioner in international meetings such as the following:
- Organization of workshops (such as on communications strategy in cooperation with Raoul Wallenberg Institute on 21-22 February 2017);
- Cooperation with , civil society organizations (CSOs) (such as the workshop entitled “MNHRC and CSOs - Paths towards cooperation,” 28 July 2017 at Green Hill Hotel, Yangon, jointly organized by the MNHRC and the Democracy Reporting International [DRI]).
- Participation in the visiting programs for national human rights institutions in Southeast Asia (such as the visiting program to European human rights institutions in June 2017 held in Brussels and Berlin).
d. Legal Division
In October 2017, MNHRC organized a workshop in Nay Pyi Taw with the support of the APF on moratorium on the application of death penalty. Thirty-three participants including parliamentarians, senior government officials from different relevant government departments, members of CSOs and media attended the workshop. The workshop participants issued an outcome statement with recommendations to the government to consider a moratorium on the application of the death penalty pending its abolition since Myanmar is considered abolitionist in practice.
Nature of Human Rights Violations Attended To
About 30 percent of the total number of complaints received by MNHRC refers to land confiscation cases. Complaints about the members of the police force rank second in number; while complaints about the judiciary are the third most numerous.
An investigation team of the MNHRC visited Budidaung Maungdaw in Rakhine State twice in 2017 to check the prison where persons who were arrested in relation to the violence that took place in August 2017 were incarcerated, and the camps for the internally-displaced people and Muslim community. MNHRC recommended that the prisoners be allowed access to their lawyers, and have family visit and health care.
Conclusion
The establishment of the MNHRC is part of the political, economic and social reforms that have taken place in the country during the last few years. It also fulfills one of the recommendations under the Universal Periodic Review for Myanmar. In its capacity as an independent national-level body on human rights, the MNHRC is determined to contribute to that process by taking initiatives and acting proactively to improve the human rights situation in the country.
Khin Maung Lay is a member of MNHRC, and currently in-charge of the Training and Education Division.
For further information, please contact: Khin Maung Lay, The Myanmar National Human Rights Commission, 7, Pyay Road, Hlaing Township, Yangon,
Republic of the Union of Myanmar, ph +951654684; emails: info[a]mnhrc.org.mm; int.relations[a]mnhrc.org.mm; http://mnhrc.org.mm.