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Summary: This report extracts mentions of children's rights issues in the reports of the UN Special Procedures. This does not include reports of child specific Special Procedures, such as the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which are available as separate reports. Scroll to: UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights (2010) UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights (2009) ---------- Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights,Tomás Ojea Quintana (A/HRC/10/19) Country visit: 15 – 19 February 2010 Report published: 10 March 2010 Mr. Ojea Quintana identified the following concerns: Detainment: In order to move forward concretely and urgently on the release of prisoners of conscience, the Special Rapporteur reiterates the proposal he put forward to the authorities to begin with certain categories of prisoners such as the elderly, those with health limitations, long-serving prisoners and women who have children. The Special Rapporteur wishes to underline the utmost urgency of the release of those prisoners whose lives are at risk if proper medical attention is not received, including those who have endured torture and ill-treatment during years in detention in harsh conditions. There are reportedly 130 prisoners of conscience in poor health, 19 of them requiring urgent medical treatment. (para 16) Child and armed conflict: The Special Rapporteur is also deeply concerned about reports that Aung Ko Htay, a child soldier, now aged 16, has been sentenced to death for involvement in the killing of a soldier during a fight. He was recruited into the army when he was 14 years old. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Myanmar is a State party, prohibits the execution of people for offences committed under the age of 18. According to the country’s Child Law (1993), chapter XVIII, article 71, a child should not be punished by death or imprisonment exceeding 10 years. (para 41) The Special Rapporteur commends the efforts of the Committee on the Prevention of Military Recruitment of Underage Children, which include: the education of officers, military personnel and communities on the law regarding recruitment of underage children and the purpose and activities of the Committee; training on adhering to the law; discharging soldiers who were found to be underage; and investigating complaints received from ILO on forced military recruitment. Nevertheless, reports from numerous reliable sources of ongoing recruitment and the estimates of upwards of thousands of underage soldiers call for increased measures against recruiting officers and generals. (para 75) Despite measures by the Government of Myanmar to prevent and halt the recruitment and use of child soldiers, these practices still persist in the military and by non-State actors. Children from vulnerable poor families are particularly at risk of being lured into the military with promises of jobs and food. There have been reports of threats of arrests to children who refuse to join the military. (para 76) In 2009, ILO received 78 complaints concerning underage recruitment, of which 34 led to releases that year; an additional 10 complaints received in 2008 led to discharges in 2009. According to information received by the Special Rapporteur, the Government has released 278 child soldiers. (para 77) The Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict released its conclusions on Myanmar on 28 October 2009 (S/AC.51/2009/4) which included strong condemnation of all recruitment and use of children in violation of national and international law as well as deep concern about continued lack of humanitarian access particularly in contested and ceasefire areas. (para 78) Non-State armed groups have recruited and used children, including through forced recruitment. Although the situation has been well documented by several NGOs, due to the restrictions in access to the border areas the United Nations has been unable to monitor and verify the presence of children in these groups. A United Nations country task force has been established as a monitoring and reporting mechanism, but the effective functioning of such a mechanism requires strengthened capacity, unhindered access, freedom of movement and witness protection guarantees. The ILO complaint mechanism on forced labour encompasses recruitment of child soldiers and should be given the conditions and means to operate effectively, including strengthened capacity of the office. (para 79) Recruitment of child soldiers is a crime for which perpetrators must be held accountable in accordance with the law. Only legal prosecution of those involved will contribute to ending this practice. The Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict urged the Myanmar Government to prosecute as a matter of priority persons responsible for crimes committed against children. Punitive measures taken to punish those involved in the recruitment of child soldiers have been disproportionately light and largely ineffective. (para 80) The Special Rapporteur also encourages the Government to apply the principle that child recruits cannot be found guilty of desertion and to adjust its policies to ensure that children are not charged with desertion in the first place, and are not subject to any criminal charges, imprisonment or any other form of harassment. There appears to be a practice of arresting former child soldiers for desertion some years after the fact. (para 81) The Special Rapporteur raised the case of Myo Win with the Minister of Labour. Myo Win was arrested in September 2009 for desertion and sentenced to seven years in a military court without a lawyer. He had been forcibly recruited into the military in 1996 while still in school but escaped back home after spending four and a half months in training and a week in his regiment. (para 82) Violence: The presence and conduct of the military are central to the plight of these civilians. Military operations have placed a particularly heavy burden on rural populations, affecting their ability to sustain livelihoods. There have been numerous and frequent reports of civilians being forced to serve as porters and guides for the military, to build and maintain roads, to construct military camps and to labour for infrastructure projects. Cases of rape and sexual violence, many of them against young girls and adolescents, have been reported by human rights organizations over the past years as committed by military personnel. As with all allegations of serious human rights violations, proper investigations must be conducted and justice provided to the victims. (para 63) The Special Rapporteur urges the Government and all armed groups to ensure the protection of civilians, in particular children and women, during armed conflict. In this regard, recruitment of child soldiers, displacement of villagers, the use of anti-personnel landmines and the forced labour of civilians should stop without any delay. (para 69) Discrimination: The Special Rapporteur calls upon the Government to ensure that ethnic minorities are granted fundamental rights. The ethnic minorities in Myanmar should have the right to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, and to use their own language, in private and in public, freely and without interference or any form of discrimination, in accordance with the 1992 Declaration on Minorities. Policies that prevent teaching in ethnic languages in ethnic populated areas need to be changed. Ensuring the enjoyment of culture rights for ethnic minorities would contribute to the richness of Myanmar as a diverse and multi-ethnic country and would contribute to its political and social stability. (para 84) The Special Rapporteur urges the Government to end the unacceptable discrimination, human rights abuses and resulting severe economic deprivation they face. This ethnic minority continues to be denied citizenship, under the 1982 Citizenship Act, which contravenes generally accepted international norms to ensure that there is no State-sanctioned discrimination on the basis of religion and ethnicity. The right of children to nationality and registration at birth are guaranteed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. (para 87) Since 1994 the Myanmar authorities have refused to issue birth certificates to many Muslim children. As a consequence of their statelessness, these children face discrimination with regard to education, health care and employment. (para 88) The Special Rapporteur notes that the Government should comply with the conclusions of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which recommended that the Citizenship Act be repealed and that in the light of articles 2 (non-discrimination) and 3 (best interests of the child) of the Convention,“abolish the categorization of citizens, as well as the mention on the national identity card of the religion and the ethnic origin of citizens, including children. In the view of the Committee, all possibility of stigmatization and denial of the rights recognized by the Convention should be avoided.” (para 90) Poverty: In Rakhine State, it is said that only 13 per cent of households are able to meet their food needs for the entire year, and 26 per cent of the population suffers from malnutrition. Between 70 and 90 per cent of a household’s income is allocated to food purchase. Only 30 per cent of the population is said to receive public health care. A third of the population has no access to clean water. Prevalent causes of mortality are malaria, diarrhoea, respiratory and skin infections, intestinal parasites and cholera. The maternal mortality rate is much higher than in the rest of Myanmar (380 women per 100,000 births). There are three doctors per 430,000 people in Maungdaw, and two per 280,000 in Buthidaung. (para 93) The Special Rapporteur recalls that it is the duty of the Government of Myanmar to expend available resources to address the realization of basic economic, social and cultural rights. The denial of economic, social and cultural rights has had devastating effects in Myanmar, affecting an immense proportion of the population. Serious investment in the public service sector is urgently needed in order to make available affordable and accessible heath care, education, and social security coverage. (para 96) The Government of Myanmar spends 0.5 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) on health, and 0.9 per cent of GDP on education, while the military and State-owned enterprises together account for 80 per cent of total State spending. (para 98) Health: Infant mortality remains high, with an estimated 1 in 10 births resulting in the death of the infant. More than 25 per cent of the population lacks access to safe drinking water. Approximately half of the malaria deaths in South-East Asia occur in Myanmar. More than 30 per cent of Myanmar’s children are chronically malnourished. The national prevalence of underweight and stunting among children under 5 years is 32 per cent. (para 97) ----------------------------------- Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights,Tomás Ojea Quintana (A/HRC/10/19) Country visit: 14 – 19 February 2009 Report published: 11 March 2009 Mr. Ojea Quintana identified the following concerns: Children and armed conflict: The Special Rapporteur visited the areas affected by Cyclone Nargis in August 2008 and his findings were included in his report submitted to the General Assembly. He travelled to Kayin State in February 2009, where he met withtwo factions of the Karen National Union (KNU) that had concluded a ceasefire with the Government. He noted that the Karen National Union/Karen National Liberation Army (KNU/KNLA) Peace Council had maintained its own armed forces and had its own Constitution, laws, jail and judges; the Democratic Buddhist Karen Army informed the Special Rapporteur that it maintained an armed force of 5,000 fighters. Both factions denied recruiting minors as soldiers and agreed to allow the United Nations Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism task force verification of their troops, as required by the Security Council in its resolution 1612 (2005) on children in armed conflict. (para 11) In its resolution 63/245, the General Assembly strongly called upon the Government of Myanmar to, inter alia, intensify measures to ensure the protection of children from armed conflict. Children continueto be recruited and used in large numbers as soldiers despite the existing laws and policies prohibiting the recruitment of persons below the age of 18. In this regard, the Special Rapporteur encourages the Government to intensify efforts to address the problem of the recruitment of child soldiers in its armed forces. He welcomes the efforts of the Government committee for the prevention of military recruitment of underage children in November 2008 to raise awareness among military officers and other ranks in the Northern Command. He also notes the cooperation of the Government with the Working Group on Children in Armed Conflict. The Special Rapporteur calls upon the Government to continue implementing the plan of action of the committee, and urges that those who continue to recruit child soldiers be brought to justice. The Special Rapporteur recommendsthat the Government adhere to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict. (para 55) In his report (A/63/341), the Special Rapporteur recommended that a number of measures be adopted by the military and the police in order to improve the human rights situation in the country. These recommendations relate to very serious issues that should be stressed again. In this regard, the military should: (…) (b) Refrain from the recruitment of child soldiers, and continue its policy to avoid such a practice; (…) (para 97) Poverty: As in any other least developed country, poverty is the main reason for a range of problems and a hindrance to the realization of human rights for everyone. While visiting Insein prison in Yangon, and speaking at random with the inmates, the Special Rapporteur spoke with a young girl who claimed to be 17 years old (prison authorities claimed that she was 19) who had been sentenced to two years of imprisonment for having stolen the equivalent of $10. When she was asked to write her name, she responded that she was illiterate. To the Special Rapporteur’s comment that he had heard from all relevant authorities that education was free and compulsory, the authorities’ response was that she was an exception, since she had a poor financial background and had had to work from an early age to support her family. There are many others like her, who are exploited as children and do not receive any education to ensure a better future. (para 18) It is commonly acknowledged that Myanmar receives one of the lowest levels of international aid. The social development indicators of the country call for concerted action and support. Urgent measures are required to ensure the most basic human rights of the most vulnerable people, especially of ethnic communities residing in remote border areas. According to the Human Development Report 2007, Myanmar is one of the least developed countries, raking 132nd of 177 States on the human development index. Under-5 mortality ranks number 36, meaning that the probability of a child dying before the age of 5 years is roughly 1 in 10. Maternal mortality is among the highest in South-east Asia. Only 43 per cent of children enrolled at school complete five years of primary education. Inside the country, the poorest of the poor live in border areas populated by ethnic minorities; for example, according to the Integrated Household Living Conditions Survey for 2007 of the United Nations Development Programme, while the figure for people below the official food poverty line is 10 per cent countrywide, it is 40 per cent in Chin, 21 per cent in northern Shan State and 20 per cent in eastern Shan State. (para 72) Serious investment in the public service sector is urgently needed in order to make affordable and accessible heath care, education and social security coverage available. (para 73) Violence: In November 2008, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women expressed deep concern at the high prevalence of sexual and other forms of violence, including rape, perpetrated against rural women from the Shan, Mon, Karen, Palaung and Chin ethnic groups by members of the armed forces. The Committee also expressed concern at the apparent impunity of the perpetrators of such violence (although a few cases have been prosecuted) and at reports of threats against and intimidation and punishment of the victims. On 27 December 2008, the body of a 7-year-old girl was found raped and shot dead, near her house in Ma Oo Bin village, Kyauk Township, Nyaunglebin District, in northern Kayin State. No action has yet been taken against the perpetrator of the crime, allegedly from the Light Infantry 350, which has since moved away from the area. As in all other suchprevious cases, justice must be done. The family of the victim and other community members must be protected from any retaliation for seeking justice. Some 450,000 people are said to be internally displaced in Myanmar because of armed conflicts around the country. (para 61) The Special Rapporteur urges the Government and all armed groups to ensure the protection of civilians, in particular children and women, during armed conflict. He calls upon the Government to abide by international humanitarian law, especially the four Geneva Conventions, to which Myanmar is a party. In particular, article 3 of the Geneva Conventions provides for the protection of civilians from inhumane treatment and violence to life and person. (para 62) Discrimination: The Special Rapporteur remains concerned over the continued discrimination against the Muslim population of Rakhine State. Ongoing human rights violations, such as restrictions on the exercise of religion, forced relocation, land seizures and restrictions on freedom of movement, have been reported. In November 2008, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women urged the Government of Myanmar to review the 1982 citizenship law that places unreasonable restrictions on the Muslim population of Rakhine State in the enjoyment of their fundamental rights, and denies them citizenship. They are subject to multiple restrictions and forms of discrimination, require official permission to marry and have children, and are criminalized for non-compliance. They have an illiteracy rate of 80 per cent, and their movements are restricted. Since 1994, the authorities have stopped issuing birth certificates, leaving thousands ofchildren unregistered. As non-citizens, women are barred from serving as schoolteachers or as nurses. They are vulnerable to sexual violence. The presence of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the region, established after the 1992 refugee influx into Bangladesh, has had a stabilizing effect. The continued presence of UNHCR and other humanitarian organizations is most important. (para 66) Humanitarian Aid: The Special Rapporteur welcomes the achievements of the Tripartite Core Group, established in May 2008 by the Government of Myanmar, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the United Nations, in its relief efforts in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. Its post-Nargis periodic review of 19 December 2008 indicated that progress had been made, notwithstanding initial problems, and that most of the affected population had received some form of support and assistance. It has been reported, however, that living conditions for a large proportion of the population remain difficult. Some 15 per cent of children still suffer from malnutrition, and many households remain in inadequate shelters. (para 69) The Special Rapporteur reiterates his call for the respect of the fundamental rights of the victims and survivors of the cyclone, in particular children who have lost their parents, women and the elderly. Titles should be returned to owners of land, and identity certificates, such as birth certificates and citizenship cards, should be reissued if they have been lost. Communities should not be relocated without their consent. (para 70) With regard to the health sector, the Special Rapporteur notes that the right to health is at risk for many in the cyclone-affected areas. vulnerable groups, including widows and orphans, need special attention and protection as laid down by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention against All Forms of Discrimination against Women. It has been estimated that 1 million people in the Irrawaddy Delta are in need of food aid. (para 71) Health: In Rakhine State, it is said that only 13 per cent of households are able to meet their food needs for the entire year, and 26 per cent of the population suffers from malnutrition. In a study of 760 children in December 2007, 26 per cent suffered from acute malnutrition and 1.8 per cent from severe malnutrition. Food prices increased by over 30 per cent over the past year. Between 70 and 90 per cent of household income is allocated to food purchase. The price of rice, the main food for the people of Myanmar, increased by 75 per cent over the past year. (para 76) In Rakhine State, only 30 per cent of the population is said to receive public health care; a third has no access to clean water. The main causes of mortality are malaria, diarrhoea, respiratory and skin infections, intestinal parasites and cholera. The maternal mortality rate is much higher than in the rest of Myanmar (380 women per 100,000 births). In the state, there are three doctors per 430,000 people in Maungdaw, two for every 280,000 in Buthidaunga, and an average of one nurse for 60,000 people. (para 78) Detainment: In his report (A/63/341), the Special Rapporteur recommended that the prisoners be released in the following order of priority: (a) Elderly prisoners; (b) Prisoners with health problems; (c) Prominent members of politicalorganizations and ethnic leaders; (d) Long-standing prisoners; (e) Members of religious orders; (f) Women who have children; (g) Prisoners transferred to forced labour camps; (h) Unconvicted prisoners; (i) Prisoners without a criminal record; (j) Prisoners held in jails remote from their homes. (para 95) ----------------------------------- Visits requested
Please note that the language may have been edited in places for the purpose of clarity