Full pdf statement
See the Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur. See LRWC’s statement at 1:20:44
Check against delivery
Organization: Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada
Item: Item 4: Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar
Date: 18 March 2021
Speaker: Renée Mulligan
Oral Statement to the 49th Session of the UN Human Rights Council from Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada (LRWC), NGO in special consultative status
Halt the atrocities against Myanmar people, including human rights defenders
Mr. President,
Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada thanks the Special Rapporteur for his tireless calls1 to the international community to halt the Myanmar military’s atrocities. A year after the February 2021 coup, at least 1,600 people have been killed and 9,600 arbitrarily detained.
Among those detained are numerous lawyers, human rights defenders and journalists.2 Many have been tortured and denied access to lawyers and fair trials.
Up to 440,000 people have been internally displaced since the coup especially in Kayin and Kayah States.3 Violations continue against Rohingya, Shan, Chin, Kachin, Karen, Karenni and other peoples. Thousands have fled across borders.
Despite the General Assembly resolution calling for a halt to arms transfers to Myanmar,4 members of this Council, China and Russia, continue to transfer weapons to the junta, facilitating its grave human rights violations, crimes against humanity and war crimes. We join the Special Rapporteur’s call for resolutions by this Council and the Security Council including an arms embargo, targeted economic sanctions, and referral of the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court.
We urge all Council members and observer States to ensure utmost provision of humanitarian assistance and refugee protection, including resettlement, for all affected persons, including human rights defenders and their families.
Thank you, Mr. President.
_____________________
References
[1] Situation of human rights in Myanmar, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, A/HRC/49/76, https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/2022-03/A_HRC_49_76_AUV.docx; Enabling Atrocities: UN Member States’ Arms Transfers to the Myanmar Military, Conference room paper of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, 22 February 2022, https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/MM/CRP-31012022.docx; Comments from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, on the first anniversary of the illegal coup in Myanmar, https://player.vimeo.com/video/672033253?h=6fc91650aa. [2] UNICEF condemns killings and arbitrary detentions of children by security forces during ongoing crisis in Myanmar, 4 March 2022, https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-condemns-killings-and-arbitrary-detentions-children-security-forces-during [3] Number of internally displaced in Myanmar doubles, to 800,000, UN news, 11 February 2022, https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/02/1111812. [4] The Situation in Myanmar, Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 18 June 2021, https://undocs.org/en/A/RES/75/287.
