UN Human Rights Specialist calls on Myanmar to resolve rights issues

A United Nations Rapporteur has once again demanded that Myanmar authorities address the human rights situation in their country.

Last Wednesday, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, called on state authorities to resolve challenges to the recently implemented democratic process.

Lee stated “journalists are still being interrogated and arrested.” Lee also raised the matter of the arrest of 10 journalists in 20 and the escalation of fighting in the Kokang region, “where over 100 civilians are reported to have died and tens of thousands displaced.” Lee said that “the Government has an obligation to strictly uphold fundamental human rights.”

This is not the first time that the Myanmar authorities have been criticized for human rights abuses taking place in their country. Last April, Previous Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Tomas Ojea Quintana expressed concern about the deteriorating human rights situation in the country’s Rakhine State. In January of last year Quintana demanded an immediate investigation following reports of high levels of violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. In October 2013 Quintana reported that sectarian violence between the Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State was contributing to anti-Muslim feeling in Myanmar.