Thammasat University students interested in political science, ASEAN studies, law, and related subjects may find it interesting to participate in a free 25 webinar on human rights in Myanmar before and after the 2021 coup.
The event is organized by ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore.
The TU Library collection includes several books about different aspects of human rights in Myanmar.
The speaker will be Dr. Matthew Bugher, Research Director for the Myanmar Human Rights Project at the Schell Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School, New Haven, Connecticut, the United States of America. Dr. Bugher was formerly an adjunct faculty member at Thammasat University’s School of Global Studies.
The event will be at 9am Bangkok time on Monday, 25 July 2022. Students are invited to register at this link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_IjZr3F7ES8eG4xyk5si49g
As the event description posted online notes,
Even before Myanmar’s February 2021 coup, decades of authoritarian rule had not given Myanmar a stellar human rights record. Issues related to forced labour, child labour, human trafficking, minority rights, freedom of expression, and the decades-long armed conflict between the Myanmar military and various ethnic armed organisations dogged successive administrations, including during the brief decade of democratisation between 2012 and 2021. Since February 2021, the human rights situation in Myanmar has drastically worsened. The number of people that security forces have killed, detained, put on trial, tortured and abused, or forcibly displaced has increased dramatically. The post-coup context has left many communities in Myanmar in dire need of basic social services – especially healthcare and education – and humanitarian assistance. Children in Myanmar have been disproportionately affected by the military regime’s actions, as both victims and targets of violence. A recent report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar has warned of an “escalating political, economic and humanitarian crisis that is putting Myanmar’s children at risk of becoming a lost generation” and offered recommendations for coordinated international action.
As the website of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), a leading United Nations entity, explained last month,
KUALA LUMPUR (23 June 2022) – The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, today expressed his appreciation for Malaysia’s increasing leadership on the crisis in Myanmar, and urged States in the region to adopt a similar approach to the human rights catastrophe unfolding under military rule.
“Too much is at stake for Myanmar and its people to accept complacency and inaction by the international community,” Andrews said in a statement at the end of an eight-day visit to Malaysia.
“Junta forces have killed more than 2,000 civilians, arrested more than 14,000, displaced more than 700,000, driving the number of internally displaced persons well over one million, and plunged the country into an economic and humanitarian crisis that threatens the lives and wellbeing of millions.
“The military’s attacks on the people of Myanmar constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes. No one has been spared the impact of the military’s violence.”
Andrews said that even before the coup, the Myanmar military had committed atrocities against the people of Myanmar. “The Rohingya faced genocidal attacks by Myanmar security forces. I have learned that there are over 104,000 registered Rohingya in Malaysia who have fled from Myanmar seeking safe haven with untold numbers who are unregistered.
“My mission here provided me with a unique opportunity to sit face to face with dozens of courageous men and women and children .who fled the horrors that have engulfed many areas of Myanmar, including those who have recently arrived in Malaysia. They provided me with firsthand accounts of what they witnessed or directly experienced. These stories, without exception, emphasized the terror that is raging across the country
“A young woman told me: ‘You are walking on a path that you don’t know, towards a place you don’t know, and you could die on the way but you still go forward, because the persecution is worse behind you’.
Those who fled Myanmar also told Andrews about the challenges they faced in Malaysia, citing fears of being sent to migration detention, insufficient education opportunities for their children, and instances of extortion by police officers.
“Let me be clear, refugees from Myanmar are here because they were forced to come here. Their inability to return to their homes in Myanmar is directly linked to the military junta’s human rights violations and war against the people of Myanmar. It is impossible to address issues related to those seeking refuge in Malaysia and other nations in the region without directly and effectively addressing the crisis inside of Myanmar.,” Andrews said.
Malaysia not only recognizes this fact, it has been willing, through the words and actions of Foreign Minister Saifuddin, to challenge ASEAN to reexamine their current policy on Myanmar, the UN expert said, adding that Foreign Minister Saifuddin had called on ASEAN to move from a policy of “noninterference” to, in his words, one of “non-indifference”.
“Malaysia has given voice to the obvious fact that after more than one year, nothing has moved and since nothing has moved, more people are being killed and more people are being forced to flee the country,” Andrews said.
He has not only called for ASEAN to engage with the Myanmar National Unity Government, he has begun engaging with the National Unity Government’s Foreign Minister Zin Mar Aung, Andrews said.
“I look forward to working to support Malaysia’s foreign policy leadership on Myanmar, to affirm the human rights of a people under siege and to reduce the incredible scale of human suffering in Myanmar.”
Also last month, the OHCHR website reported,
GENEVA (14 June 2022) – The Myanmar military junta has brutally attacked and killed children and systematically abused their human rights, a UN expert said in a report released today that calls for immediate coordinated action to protect the rights of children and safeguard Myanmar’s future.
“The junta’s relentless attacks on children underscore the generals’ depravity and willingness to inflict immense suffering on innocent victims in its attempt to subjugate the people of Myanmar,” said Tom Andrews, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar.
“The international community’s approach to the coup and the junta’s atrocities has failed. States must take immediate coordinated action to address an escalating political, economic and humanitarian crisis that is putting Myanmar’s children at risk of becoming a lost generation.”
The Special Rapporteur said it was clear from the evidence that the children of Myanmar were not only being caught in the crossfire of escalating attacks, but that they were often the targets of the violence…
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)