CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women CESCR Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. OHCHR Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights SGBV Sexual and gender-based violence.
Introduction
Their dedication to improving the human rights situation in Myanmar is truly admirable. Unlike in the rest of the country, the authorities in northern Rakhine state carry out annual inspections.
Mandate and methodology and legal framework
Mandate
The Mission notes with concern that allegations of human rights violations and abuses in other parts of Myanmar also merit in-depth investigation. However, the Mission is confident that its geographical, temporal and substantive focus enabled solid overall findings and recommendations.
Methodology
The mission did not assume that a credible and reliable source would necessarily provide accurate and valid information. The Mission uses the term in accordance with the right of the group concerned to self-identify.
Legal framework
Context…
Military domination in politics
92 The Republic of the Union of Myanmar – President's Office, “President signs State Counselors Bill into law” (6 April 2016). Arnold, Administration of the State in Myanmar – An Overview of the General Administration Department (Myanmar Development Resource Institute's Center for Economic and Social Development & The Asia Foundation, 2014).
Ethnic and religious diversity
This resulted in a significant portion of the population in Rakhine State not participating in the count. However, the census report noted that, assuming that all of Rakhine State's more than 1 million estimated unregistered residents were Muslim, the percentage of Muslims would increase to 4.3 percent.
History of human rights violations
Emblematic situation 1: Kachin and Shan States
Since 2011, decades-old conflicts in Kachin and Shan States have escalated with episodes of intense fighting between the Tatmadaw and "ethnic armed organizations". These grievances were compounded by the Tatmadaw's historic use of counterinsurgency tactics that directly affected the civilian population.
Patterns of violations committed by Myanmar military and security forces
Conduct of hostilities in flagrant disregard of civilian life and property
The Tatmadaw directed deliberate, frequent and systematic attacks against the civilian population or individual civilians. In many reported attacks, the Tatmadaw did not have a specific military target when they attacked the villages.
Unlawful killings
Torture and other ill-treatment
The mission also received many consistent accounts of men and women killed by the Tatmadaw in the context of forced labor.225 Tatmadaw soldiers have intentionally killed. The mission received credible reports of the Tatmadaw committing mass killings in conflict-prone areas of northern Myanmar.
Sexual and gender-based violence
Arbitrary deprivation of liberty and enforced disappearance
The mission also received reports that the women were raped before they were killed, but was unable to confirm these allegations.219. They told me to stay there and they carried my brother's body out of the room.
Forced labour and forced recruitment of adults and children
The victim reported that he was apprehended by the Tatmadaw under suspicion of being part of the KIA. The brutality and cruelty of the sexual violence perpetrated by the Tatmadaw is not only present in reports of persecution.
Forced displacement, confiscation and destruction of property, and denial of
Emblematic incidents
In 2016, my relative was on his way to grow crops when he was arrested by the Tatmadaw. The Tanai area at the center of the Tatmadaw offensive is controlled by the KIA.
Patterns of violations and abuses committed by non-State armed actors
Legal framework
International humanitarian law applies to all parties to an armed conflict, whether international or non-international, including non-state armed groups. Even if the rights of a non-state actor in control of territory to employ the population in the armed forces were the same as those of a state, limitations would still apply.
Findings
Impact of conflict, violations and abuses on civilians
Fear, trauma, displacement and humanitarian impact
A man said that his aunt had to mortgage her land to pay for his trip to Malaysia, after escaping arbitrary detention by the Tatmadaw.837 381. Civilians continue to suffer as a result of the ongoing conflicts between the Tatmadaw and the EAOs. 838 Many express a feeling of being caught in the middle: for example, one witness mentioned that “villagers want nothing to do with this, all they want is to live in peace and farm their land.
Landmines
Lack of recourse
They asked, "Are you enjoying yourself?" The survivors begged to stop the rapes, but were forced to continue. There was no KIA post in the village - the nearest post is several hours away - they were shooting at civilians.
Emblematic situation 2: Rakhine State
It emphasized that the Advisory Commission's mandate was not to investigate specific allegations of human rights violations.916. It has focused on (1) human rights violations against the ethnic Rakhine, (2) the systemic oppression of the Rohingya, (3) the violence of 2012, and (4) the extreme violence of 2016 and 2017 related to ARSA attacks and "clearance" operations by security forces.
Human rights violations against the ethnic Rakhine
- Forced or compulsory labour
- Forced evictions
- Confiscation of food and livestock
- Emblematic incident: shooting in Mrauk-U on 16 January 2018
- Conclusion
After showing all documents, one of them said, “The army wants to build infrastructure here. These seizures have removed a significant portion of the income of poor villagers who exist at a subsistence level, affecting the entire family. The practice, and accompanying abuse, also served to build distrust and enmity among the ethnic Rakhine towards the Tatmadaw.997 Powerlessness in relation to respond endemically.
Systemic oppression and persecution of the Rohingya
Denial of legal status and identity
The GAD falls under the Ministry of Interior, one of three ministries controlled by the Tatmadaw. Forced labor was also imposed in the context of the conflict between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army,935 exposing porters to significant dangers.
Denial of the right to freedom of movement
In the central city of Rakhine, restrictions on the freedom of movement of the Rohingya and Kaman have increased significantly since the 2012 violence. In 2015, the government denied the existence of restrictions on the freedom of movement of the displaced population in central Rakhine.
Restrictions on access to food, livelihoods, health care and education
The discrimination faced in primary and secondary schools, and the denial of access to higher education, amount to violations of the right to education. The restrictions on access to education described above contribute to the slow erosion and weakening of the Rohingya community as a whole.
Restrictions on humanitarian access
Vehicles entering the Sittwe rural camps are stopped at the entrance to the camps and require the necessary permits. Organizations may be required to demonstrate that they provide equal assistance to ethnic Rakhine and Muslims, regardless of the actual needs of each community.
Restrictions affecting private life
Regional Order 1/2005 of the Maungdaw Township Peace and Development Council states that those permitted to marry must "limit" the number of children they have, without giving further details. Already on the first day of construction, about five police officers came to the site with the village administrator.
Oppression through arbitrary arrest and detention
The amount of bribes varied and sometimes forced villagers to borrow large sums from their neighbors. Arbitrary arrest and detention were often accompanied by torture and ill-treatment.1278 One interviewee described how he was arbitrarily detained in 2011, apparently in connection with his involvement in an appeal against the confiscation of the village cemetery by NaSaKa.
Other forms of oppression
Other reports also indicate that arbitrary arrest and detention was a routine aspect of Rohingya life during and before the period under review. The established patterns are very similar to those outlined for ethnic Rakhine, including in terms of the types of forced labor (for example, porting, construction work, farming, maintenance of security camps), frequency of work, general ill-treatment suffered as part of such work (including fights and verbal abuse), and the economic impact on the individual and their families.
Conclusion
Violence in 2012
Emblematic incidents
The various waves of violence in Rakhine State have had a serious adverse impact on the enjoyment of the right to food. One key element of the right to education is the prohibition of any form of discrimination.
Kaman Muslims of Rakhine State
Torture and ill-treatment at Buthidaung prison
Before the October 2012 violence, there were rising tensions in Kyaukpyu and rumors of possible attacks on Muslim villagers by ethnic Rakhine. The Paik Seik district was mixed, with Kaman majority in the east and ethnic Rakhine in the west.
Government response to the 2012 violence
Under international human rights law, a state of emergency can only be declared in the presence of a “public emergency that threatens the life of the nation” 1486. The Human Rights Committee specified that “not every disruption or catastrophe qualifies as a public emergency.” emergency that threatens the life of the nation.”
Spreading hate
The majority of the displaced live in a large area on the outskirts of Sittwe town (see details on the map below). It gives an indication of the attitude of state officials towards the Rohingya shortly before the 2012 violence.
Overall analysis
Ethnic Rakhines were transported in groups before the violence and weapons were also distributed. State actors, including village administrators and members of the security forces, were heavily involved in the violence.
Conclusion
Similarly, Muslim community leaders from Mandalay stated in the same report that unknown people tried to use similar tactics with them, but they too refused to join.1611 The attitude of both Buddhist and Muslim leaders prevented further spread of violence. Given the Tatmadaw's role in the area at the time, allegations that it had a "hidden hand" in fomenting the violence deserve further investigation.
August 2017 and the “clearance operations”
- A human rights catastrophe
- A foreseeable and planned catastrophe
- An enduring catastrophe
- Perpetrators
- Violations of international law
- Emblematic situation 3: Democratic space and the exercise of fundamental freedoms
During the "clearance operation", the houses and other structures in the various Rohingya hamlets of Min Gyi were completely burnt and destroyed. The Tatmadaw immediately launched a "clearance operation" in the two neighboring Rohingya hamlets, arriving from the direction of the BGP camp.
Silencing of critical voices
Legal toolbox for restricting fundamental freedoms
Intimidation and reprisal for engagement with the United Nations
The international community has focused a lot of attention on the human rights situation of the Rohingya. Based on the information gathered by the Mission, these are some of the most serious incidents in the course of the "clear-up operations".
Curtailment of peaceful protests
The issue of “hate speech”
Conclusion
Hallmarks of Tatmadaw operations
Targeting civilians
Sexual violence
Exclusionary and discriminatory rhetoric
Command climate and impunity
Crimes under international law
She was informed of this by the village administrator, acting on behalf of TNLA. The level of arbitrariness and abuse of power by the Tatmadaw is staggering.
Genocide
Crimes against humanity
War crimes
Responsibility
Tatmadaw and other security forces
Civilian authorities
Non-State armed groups and individuals
Non-exhaustive list of alleged perpetrators
International community
Impunity and accountability
For example, the 2015 Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement is "between the Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and ethnic armed organizations." This is exemplified in the role of the Sangha108 in opposing colonial rule and more recently military rule.
Legal framework and international standards on accountability
History and climate of impunity in Myanmar
Way forward
Conclusions and recommendations
Conclusions
Recommendations
Correspondence with the Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar
