Oral Statement on Burma

Organisation:Christian Solidarity Worldwide

UN Human Rights Council, 37th Session (26 February – 23 March 2018)

Agenda Item 4: ID with Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar

Speaker: Claire Denman

Thank you Mr President.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) welcomes the continued efforts of the UN Special Rapporteur and further welcomes the work of the Human Rights Council Independent International Fact-Finding Mission.

CSW is concerned that the government of Myanmar has not cooperated with the fact-finding mission and also has denied the Special Rapporteur access to the country. CSW calls on the government of Myanmar to allow unhindered access to UN representatives and international humanitarian aid agencies.

CSW remains concerned by rising militant Buddhist nationalism, which has created an atmosphere of religious intolerance. The violence against the predominantly Muslim Rohingya in 2017 follows decades of severe persecution and is now a humanitarian crisis involving ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

While CSW welcomes the establishment of the Rakhine Advisory Commission, there is a long way to go. In August 2017, members of an armed militant group known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army launched attacks against 30 Burmese police posts, sparking a disproportionate response from the Burma Army. Thousands were killed and hundreds of villages burned, resulting in an estimated 626,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh. Reports of horrific human rights atrocities include torture; mass rape; execution without trial; and the blocking of aid.

CSW calls on the government of Myanmar to take decisive action and echoes the Council’s calls for the High Commissioner to monitor the human rights situation of the Rohingya people, and provide updates to the Council for a period of three years.

Ethnic conflict against the Kachin and Shan peoples has also continued. 140,000 civilians have been displaced, 200 villages attacked and 66 churches destroyed within the last five years. The judicial system has systematically failed to hold perpetrators of abuses to account.

In October 2017, two Kachin Christians received prison sentences for guiding journalists through a church that was reportedly bombed by the Burmese military. CSW urges the authorities in Myanmar to release Dumdaw Nawng Lat and Langjaw Gam Seng, who have committed no crime, and calls on the international community to raise their case with the government of Myanmar.

Thank you Mr President.