Human Rights In Myanmar: 2009

miércoles, 4 de noviembre de 2009

Chile´s Position about Abuse of Human Rights

Every day is bigger the number of countries that join the fight against human rights abuses, but now is the turn of Chile to show us its position about this controversial issue.

Chile as any other country, knows exactly the feelings that a person feel under abuse, torture, threats and fear. Why?

For over 15 years the Chilean society lived under the regime of Augustus Pinochet, in this time, the life, integrity and freedom of Chileans was not taken into account. And it was not until 1990 that Chile could pass from a military dictatorship to a democratically government with the President Patricio Aylwin.

After 1990 a lot of time was not taken from Chile to recovering human rights of the society, but so far the people continue to struggle because injuries like that are not easy to heal ...

(13) Derechos Chile; Why keep looking back at the past.(2005)

Current Human Rights Treaties in Chile

• International Convention for ensuring effective protection against the criminal traffic known under slavery name''white''
• International Convention for the Suppression of Trafficking in Women and Children
• Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
• Convention on the Status of Refugees
• Convention on the fight against discrimination in education
• International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
• Convention against Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading
• Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture
• Convention on the war crimes and crimes against humanity
• Convention to Prevent and Punish Acts of Terrorism Taking the Form of Crimes Against Persons and Related Extortion that are of International Significance these
• Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction
• Jurisdiction of the human rights committee of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

(12) Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment.
CODEPU; Treaties in Chile.

More Help...

Nowadays Chile still struggling to recover 100% of the human rights of people and not only about their country, also of the rest of the world.

That is why the last 03 of April 2007, Chile was among the first countries to sign the International Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the first human rights treaty of the XXI century, and its purpose is to protect more than 650 million people with disabilities living in the world.

(11) Participemos, Chile firma en la ONU el primer tratado de derechos humanos del siglo XXI.

India's Posture

Myanmar and India are part of the UNESCO that this is an institution that has as an objective made peaceful in human's mind.

Both of them has participation in the UNESCO but Myanmar is not actually helping to made this objective possible.
India has participation in the UNESCO but this country is contribuying to the finality and punishing to the trafficking in persons, the Indian authorities are protecting the victims for any kind of traffick activities.(9)

These are the arguments wich I am based on to assume that the posture of India about the violation of the human rigths in Myanmar is against:

1.- India is a country wich has problems with boys, gilrs, women and men are victims of trafficking in persons for prostitution and forced work finalities.
The Indian government authorities have punished to the traffickers, protect and rescue victims, and they have progress on the aplication of the law to defend their human rights.

2.-The situation in Myanmar is thar women, girls, boys and men are trafficated for prostitution and forced work finalities, to agriculture work, street sellers, and fish processing, etc. In Myanmar is not repecting the established law and the human rights.
Military officials have participated directly in acts of people explotation like prostitution, forced work, and illegal children recruitment.(8)

(8) Wolrd Factbook.

(9) La Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura (UNESCO).

What does Chile think about this problem in Myanmar?

The position of Chile is the same as the Aung San Suu Kyi´s position, they are opposed to the abuse of human rights in Myanmar, they are not agree with the abuses that this Asian country has over their society.
On behalf of the government of President Michelle Bachelet, the Chilean foreign ministry called for the immediate freedom of the brave Burmese fighter now living under house arrest.
"We urgently call on the authorities of Myanmar to enact immediate and unconditional freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi," said Chilean Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"Also,for the news about the poor health that the Nobel Prize,Aung San Suu Kyi, is living we urge the military junta that governs that country, to take all necessary measures to protect and ensure their physical and mental integrity," added The Chilean Foreign Ministry

*(10) Ministerio de Relaciones exteriores de chile; Gobierno de Chile rechaza arresto a Premio Nobel de la Paz (2009)

Brazil's Intervention

Brazil is against the violation of the human rights in Myanmar because they suffer the same problem in their country. They know how difficult it is to make it stop.

During the 5th special session of the human rights council, Brazil was very concerned with Myanmar's human rights situation. The country believes that these sessions will open communication with Myanmar, with the help of the UN and the Human Rights Council.

The sessions should lead to international concentment to reach decisions that will bring solutions to the violations of human rights in Myanmar. (7)

(7) Human Rights Council; V Special Session; Human Rights In Myanmar; Geneva, October 2nd, 2007.

Myanmar's Army

Myanmar army has 70,000 child-soldiers

Myanmar's army has an estimated 70,000 soldiers under 18 years of age, the largest number of child soldiers in the world, Human Rights Watch said in a report.
Children as young as 11 years old are being forcibly snatched off the streets and recruited into the army, which has an estimated 350,000 soldiers, the New York-based group said in a report on its website.
Myanmar's ruling junta denied the allegations: ‘The government finds it very difficult to understand on what basis it is making such claims, saying that 20 per cent of the national army is made up of underage children.’
Ms Jo Becker, advocacy director of the group's Children's Rights Division, said that Myanmar's record on child soldiers was ‘the worst in the world’.
The army uses ‘threats, intimidation and often violence to force young boys to become soldiers'. (6)

(6) Associate Press, The Straits Times, 17 October 2002

miércoles, 30 de septiembre de 2009

Envoy Gambari COULD NOT change anything

The human rights situation in the country has taken a dramatic downward turn since UN Envoy Gambari first visited Burma in May 2006. The changes that occurred after this visit were:

• The number of political prisoners almost doubled from 1,100 to 2,056.
• More than 130,000 people in Eastern Burma have been forced from their homes as part of ethnic cleansing campaign.
• September 2007’s peaceful pro-democracy protests were brutally suppressed, with protestors fired on and thousands of monks arrested.
• Humanitarian help was blocked following Cyclone Nargis.
• Political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, have been denied access to doctors and medical treatment.

“The current UN approach is failing, and the people of Burma are paying the price”. (5)

(5) Burma camping, “Burma’s Human Rights In Freefall Since Gambari’s Appointment”

Story of Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi’s father helped to win Burma's independence from the United Kingdom in 1947 and established the Tatmadaw, the Burmese army. Suu Kyi's co-founding of the National League for Democracy, a group immediately seen as a threat by the junta, and Suu Kyi's house arrest began in July of 1989. On 1990 when LND won the elections the government of Myanmar offered her freedom with the condition she goes away from Myanmar, but she denied and she lived 20 years in house arrest.

On 2007 an America man named John Yettaw visits Aung San Suu Kyi’s house, but Suu Kyi was subsequently arrested and tried for violating the terms of her arrest.
Suu Kyi was found guilty by a junta-controlled Myanmar court and sentenced to a further 18 months of house arrest, which she is currently serving. This action has been condemned by human rights groups worldwide, with the Human Rights Action Center, US Campaign For Burma, the US and the UN all calling for her freedom. (4)

Embedded video from CNN Video

(4)Causecast, “Aung San Suu Kyi: The story”

Myanmar's History of Sanctions

This video was taken from CNN. IT shows what Myanmar's GDP is made of, and some other economical and historical characteristics:

What exactly are Human Rights?

Human rights refer to the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled.

Examples of rights and freedoms which have come to be commonly thought of as human rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of expression, and equality before the law; and economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to participate in culture, the right to food, the right to work, and the right to education.

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood” (3)

Article 1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (3)
Youtube, “The universal declaration of Human Rights”, 7/10/08

jueves, 3 de septiembre de 2009

As every country, It has landmarks

Myanmar has so many landmarks that we don't know because of their regime but you can help us to save this beautiful places:

>Click on the Gadget "Pyin Oo Lwin" under Beautiful Landmarks to see them<

miércoles, 2 de septiembre de 2009

The cruel truth

What should be known about this situation is that:

The military regime in Burma is one of the world's most repressive and abusive regimes.
This regime was created since 1962 with the general Ne win.
Even though in 1999 the International Committee of the Red Cross visited Myanmar’s jails, they kept with the bad medical attention to prisoners. People were dying from exhaustion.
Council of State Peace and Development emitted 11 orders to prisoners’ treatment.
There is not independent judiciary, so the same military government plays that roll.
The people were killed by the army only because they weren’t useful for them.
The Forced labor, human trafficking, child labor and sexual violence are common in the country too.
To keep people out of knowledge, the military government of Myanmar restricts Internet access through software-based censorship that limits the material citizens can access on-line, because they don’t agree that society is informed, updated and even communicate with people from other countries, and that is the reason why we don’t know that much about their problem.

(1) Amnistía Internacional EE.UU.; visited on September 2nd, 2009.

(2) Cuestiones mundiales, "Myanmar (Antigua Birmania) y los derechos humanos"; visited on September 2nd, 2009.

Our first thought

When we first heard about this situation in Myanmar, we instantly thought that the freedom of the people in that country is not respected, that there was physical and psychological abuse, people are afraid of their own government, children are obligated to work, there is corruption, and that freedom of expression is denied.

This issue is relatively famous. It has been in the news very often lately.It is very known in some countries because this situation is not to be ingnored. In our country this situation is not that famous, that's why we are doing this blog: To make people realize that not everybody is treated the same way than us. Then, if possible, to help the people of Myanmar in some way.

Entry

With this blog we are trying to let the people know about the situation they ignore. Surely they know a lot about their own country, but as long as we share this world, problems in it are OUR problems too. Whatever happens in it, we should at least show some interest, because the human rights of the people in Myanmar are being violated (To remind: We all have the same rights around the world) and we can confirm that most of the population of the world don't know what's happening there.

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