By RTT News

May 23, 2014

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, Tomás Ojea Quintana, on Friday called on Myanmarese Government to press forward with the on-going process of constitutional reform.

"A country's Constitution should be a reflection of its people's collective aspiration, and it should embrace fundamental principles of democracy and human rights," Ojea Quintana's said.

The independent expert's call comes as the 31-member Parliamentary committee reviews proposed constitutional amendments to the 2008 Constitution with a view to drafting an amendment bill for submission to Parliament.

For the Special Rapporteur, the current constitutional reform process offers a key opportunity to address serious shortcomings which might become further entrenched and destabilize the reform process.

A healthy Constitution must be amended to strengthen democratic attitudes and values, to facilitate national reconciliation and the peace process, and also address the needs of the Myanmar society, as remarked by the country's President in January this year.

However, Quintana cautioned that Myanmar is only at the beginning of a transition and that the rule of law has yet to take root, and warned that the current Constitution contains a number of provisions which undermine the rule of law and fundamental human rights.

RTT News

June 12, 2013

The United States on has expressed concern over reports that the Myanmar (formerly Burma) government is planning to implement a population control regulation that restricts ethnic Rohingya Muslims in the country's west to having a maximum of two children.

The U.S. reaction came after Myanmar's Immigration Minister Khin Yi publicly supported the controversial two-child limit on the Rohingya Muslim minority group. Notably, Myanmar's opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Kyi and the United Nations have already denounced the planned regulation as "discriminatory."

U.S. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said at a news briefing on Tuesday that Washington was "deeply concerned about reports that some officials in Burma plan to enforce or have said they plan to enforce a two-child limit for Rohingya Muslims."

"The United States, of course, opposes coercive and discriminatory birth limitation policies, and we have pressed senior Burmese Government officials to abolish this local order. We urge the Government of Burma to eliminate all such policies without delay and we will continue to express our concerns," she added.

Earlier, the U.N. had urged Myanmar "to remove such policies or practices" after local authorities confirmed plans to impose the two-child limit for Rohingya Muslims under a 2005 regulation late last month.

Separately, Suu Kyi said the two-child regulation imposed on ethnic Rohingya was illegal, adding: "It is not good to have such discrimination. And it is not in line with human rights."

Meanwhile, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) noted that implementation of the policy was consistent with the wider persecution of the largely stateless Rohingya, violating international human rights protections, and endangering women's physical and mental health.

"Implementation of this callous and cruel two-child policy against the Rohingya is another example of the systematic and wide ranging persecution of this group, who have recently been the target of an ethnic cleansing campaign," said Brad Adams, Asia Director at HRW.

The rights watchdog noted that some 800,000 to one million Rohingyas in Myanmar are particularly vulnerable to government abuse because most are denied citizenship under the country's discriminatory 1982 citizenship law.

Notably, the recent pro-democracy developments in Myanmar have been overshadowed to an extent by the ongoing ethnic violence between Buddhist and Rohingya Muslim communities. Continued violence had left dozens dead and thousands displaced, mainly Rohingya Muslims.

Thousands of majority Buddhists, led by monks, had participated in crimes against humanity during a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingyas and other Muslims in June and October 2012. To date, no one has been held accountable for these crimes.

RTT News

April 3, 2013

The European Union has demanded an investigation into the deaths of 13 children in a fire at a Myanmar Muslim religious school on Tuesday.

"The High Representative calls on the authorities to urgently conduct a thorough investigation that will leave no doubt as to the causes of this tragic incident," spokesperson for EU Foreign Policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement.

"The High Representative is deeply troubled by reports of deaths of 13 children caused by a fire in the dormitory of a Muslim school in Yangon. She expresses her condolences to the families of the victims," the statement added.

The pre-dawn fire on Tuesday was ignited by an electrical short-circuit, reports quoting officials said. The rest of about 75 orphans, who were accommodated in the building adjacent to a mosque, escaped unhurt.

Authorities ruled out foul play in the incident that occurred amid an upsurge in fatal sectarian violence between Buddhists and Muslims, which so far claimed more than 40 lives in central Myanmar.

All the victims reportedly were boys, who died of burns or smoke inhalation.

Yangon, formerly known as Rangoon, was the country's capital when it was called Burma.

RTT News

February 5, 2013

The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), the world's largest Muslim organization representing 56 countries, has called for a seat for the OIC in the U.N. Security Council, Arab media reported.

"One of the important objectives for which I have been exerting a lot of efforts was to have a seat for OIC in the Security Council to represent 1.5 billion Muslims in the world," OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told reporters in Cairo on Monday.

Poverty, lack of economic integration, Jewish settlement in occupied Arab territories, and "Judaization" of Jerusalem were some of the problems the Islamic community was facing now, he said and added that the OIC had set out a plan to develop Jerusalem in cooperation with the Palestine Authority and the Islamic Development Bank.

Ihsanoglu said more diplomatic efforts were needed to mobilize international support for recognition of Palestine as a State by the United Nations. "UNESCO has recognized Palestine as a full member. This is a big achievement," he added.

OIC Foreign Ministers, meanwhile, held a meeting in Cairo to finalize the agenda for the February 6-7 Islamic Summit called by the OIC.

In an interview with the Saudi newspaper 'Arab News,' Ihsanoglu said the summit would shed light on the emerging challenges facing the Muslim nations and the expanding opportunities, particularly the Palestinian cause and the troubling issue of Israeli settlements.

There will be a special session on the settlement issue. The summit will also discuss the unfolding developments in the Muslim world, notably the situation in Syria and Mali, and take important decisions on them.

On the Problems faced by the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, Ihsanoglu said the OIC was seeking a political solution to the Rohingya problem. "We are in the process of building bridges between the Myanmar government and the OIC, which must be based on confidence and trust," he said.