(Geneva, 26 February
2019)
UNION Minister for
International Cooperation U Kyaw Tin attended the High Level Segment of the
40th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council held in Geneva from 25
to 27 February and delivered a Statement on 26 February 2019.
In his Statement, the
Union Minister apprised the meeting of the importance of guiding principles to
which the Human Rights Council should adhere to, progress and challenges in the
efforts of Myanmar Government for peace and national reconciliation,
development, promotion and protection of human rights, resolving the issues in
Rakhine State and cooperation with the United Nations in promoting human
rights.
At the meeting, he
stressed that promotion and protection of human rights can be achieved through
dialogue, constructive engagement and cooperation instead of confrontation and
condemnation. Every independent mandate holder or mechanism created by the
Council should strictly adhere to the principles of independence, impartiality
and integrity. Everyone must also be held accountable for what they say or
report.
The Union Minister
underlined the need to recognize the primary responsibility of a sovereign
state in realisation of human rights for its own people and to take into
consideration of each nation’s particular circumstances such as its own
historical and cultural background, capacity constraints as well as other
challenges and complexities facing the individual country.
The Union Minister
apprised the meeting that the people of Myanmar have started to enjoy the
greater freedom and democratic rights and there are visible improvements in
health, education, and socio-economic sectors since the emergence of a
democratically elected civilian government. They will be reinforced by the
ongoing implementation of the Myanmar Sustainable Development Plan-MSDP. He
also added that with a view to protecting the democratic rights of the people,
a joint parliamentary committee has been formed by the ruling party to amend
the undemocratic provisions of the Constitution.
With regard to peace
and national reconciliation, the Union Minister further informed the Meeting of
the successful holding of 3 sessions of the Union Peace Conference/21st Century
Panglong Conference resulting in agreement on 51 basic principles to build a
Democratic Federal Union. He also mentioned that ten EAOs have already signed
the NCA and the Government is redoubling its efforts to bring all on board. The
Union Minister also informed about the announcement of a four month cessation
of its region wise military operations in Kachin and Shan States by the
Tatmataw since 21 December 2018, and the recent outbreak of fightings in
northern Rakhine State ignited by the attacks of AA insurgents that has even
further complicated the situation and highlighted the urgent need to make the
peace process a success. “Ending of armed conflicts will not only pave the way
for development, but also bring an end to conflict-related violation of human
rights”, he said.
On the issue of Rakhine
State, the Union Minister said that Myanmar is still facing numerous challenges
in its delicate democratic transition which needs the continued support of the
international community. Sadly, the world’s attention is narrowly focused only
on the negative aspects related to the issue in northern Rakhine State which
was wrongfully portrayed as an issue of religious persecution by the massive
media campaign launching against Myanmar.
He explained that it is
neither an issue of religious persecution nor inter-religious conflict. But it
is, in fact, a political and economic issue involving prolonged cross-border
illegal migration since colonial time, poverty and lack of rule of law and
national security. Regardless of events of northern Rakhine State, Myanmar is a
multi-religious country where different faiths including majority of Muslim
population live in harmony throughout the country.
While sharing Myanmar’s
concern over the plight of all affected communities in Rakhine State due to the
violence ignited by provocative coordinated attacks of ARSA against multiple
security outposts in October 2016 and August 2017, the Union Minister pointed
out that the seeds of fear sown by the ARSA led to massive displacement of
people. He reminded that all unlawful violence committed by any side must be
condemned.
He added that the
Government is fully committed to find a sustainable solution that would lead to
peace, stability and development for all people in Rakhine State. The
Government is implementing a vast majority of the recommendations of the Kofi
Annan Advisory Commission and working on an action plan to implement five
priority areas covering issues of citizenship, freedom of movement, closure of
IDP camps, education and health.
“The most pressing task
today is to focus on nothing but commencing the repatriation process soonest to
resolve the humanitarian situation” in Rakhine State, he said by reiterating
Myanmar’s readiness to receive the verified returnees in a voluntary, safe and
dignified manner in accordance with the bilateral arrangements reached with
Bangladesh in November 2017.
In order to create
conducive environment for the returnees, the Union Minister explained that the
Government is working not only with UNDP and UNHCR, but also with its ASEAN
friends and regional partners, and also mobilizing funds from public, private
and the people through UEHRD. Recently, the Rakhine State Investment Fair was
held to generate job opportunities, income and long term development. He
stressed, “Development is the best recipe for ending the communal conflicts.”
On the other hand,
Union Minister U Kyaw Tin reiterated Myanmar’s firm position that the
Government has categorically objected to the Fact Finding Mission (FFM) since
its establishment, as well as its narrative-based report for a number of
reasons including its mandate’s exclusion of investigations on violations
committed by ARSA, its full adherence to the stories of Muslim displaced
persons while rejecting any contradicting evidence, ignorance of the reports
revealing the massacres by the ARSA and its political motivation, and the
conclusions of the report are politically motivated and not supported by
credible evidences.
He also shared the
information on the progress of the works of the Independent Commission of
Enquiry (ICOE) and its Evidence Collection and Verification Team (ECVT). He
reaffirmed that the Government is willing and able to address the
accountability issue. Hence, he reiterated Myanmar’s strong rejection to any
move to bring the issue of Rakhine State to international judicial system.
With regard to protecting
and promoting human rights in Myanmar, he apprised the meeting of the
significant steps taken by the Government, especially for its children, women,
persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups. Myanmar has already
ratified 4 international core human rights treaties, namely CRC, CEDAW, CRPD,
and ICESCR and signed the OPAC—Optional Protocol to the CRC on the Involvement
of Children in Armed Conflict. This year, the Government has set a target to
ratify the OPAC and to sign the ICCPR -International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights. Being a strong supporter for the UPR mechanism, Myanmar will
be submitting the 3rd national report under the UPR process in 2020. The
Government is taking steps to enact legislations including the new Child Rights
Law, and draft laws to address the issues of hate speech as well as violence
against women.
There have been a
number of visits to Myanmar paid by the Special Envoy of the Secretary General,
the Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict, and the Special
Representative for Children and Armed Conflicts.
The Union Minister
further informed the Meeting that the Government has established a National
Committee in January to prevent the issue of 6 grave violations relating to the
children and armed conflict. It will also set up a national committee and draw
up a national action plan to implement the Joint Communiqué that Myanmar had
signed with the Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict last
December. Also in the bilateral context, Myanmar is holding human rights
dialogues with the European Union, Japan and the United States.
He pointed out that
Myanmar has been unfairly targeted and disproportionately put under special
scrutiny by multiple mechanisms of the UN despite those positive developments
in the country.
He further explained
the reasons for Myanmar’s rejection to the UN resolutions for setting up the
planned establishment of Independent Investigative Mechanism (IIM): it was
established beyond the Human Rights Council’s mandate and its Terms of
References (TOR) is also very intrusive on the sovereignty of Myanmar; it would
only serve political ambition of those who wish to exploit the Council for
their political agenda; the funding arrangement which allow additional
non-budgetary resources will severely affect independence and impartiality; and
a more than 26 million US Dollar budget allocation and recruitment of 62 staff
headed by an ASG to monitor a country through this mechanism would be wasting
the scarce resources of the United Nations.
In conclusion, the
Union Minister stressed that the Government is making every effort to further
advance peace, democracy and development. Despite numerous challenges and
constraints, Myanmar will do its best to take its primary responsibility to
promote and protect the fundamental human rights of all people without losing
sight of the country’s future. The Government is only seeking for fairness in
the approach of the international community in addressing the challenges. He
also urged the Council to make careful examination of the complete and
objective information before taking any important judgment or policy decision
on issues at hand.
He conveyed his
appreciation for the support of many friends and partners to Myanmar in various
ways and welcomed their constructive cooperation in helping Myanmar resolve the
complex and delicate issue.
PHOTO: MNA
Ref; The Global New
Light of Myanmar
No comments:
Post a Comment