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Myanmar international human rights standards at low ebb

Political parties contesting the 8 November election have failed to prioritize or commit to core human rights issues, according to a new report released by FIDH on 3 November.
The report, titled “Half Empty: Myanmar’s political parties and their human rights commitments”, is the first-ever survey of the country’s political parties’ attitudes toward human rights issues.
“Myanmar’s political parties will have to significantly change their policies and institutional prejudices to improve the human rights climate in the country. Unless they place human rights front and centre on their agenda, Myanmar will remain mired in old challenges – no matter which party wins the election,” said FIDH President Karim Lahidji.
Foremost among the negative trends, the survey found that 42% of the political parties refused to make any commitments on ways to address discrimination against Muslim Rohingya. More troubling is the fact that several parties aligned themselves with the government’s official position that denies the existence of Rohingya as one of Myanmar’s ethnic groups. In addition, almost three quarters of the political parties refused to support the amendment of the 1982 Citizenship Law to give Rohingya equal access to citizenship rights.
Responses in favour of the repeal of recently enacted legislation, misleadingly labelled ‘Race and Religion Protection Laws,’ and other laws that contradict international human rights standards also garnered limited support among the parties.
Finally, there was also a surprising reluctance by the political parties to address the role of the military in parliamentary affairs and to rein in a bloated military budget.
Among the report’s encouraging findings, 58% of the political parties said they would establish a truth and reconciliation commission to address the issue of accountability for past crimes. Also positive were responses concerning media freedom, the abolition of the death penalty, and the ratification of international human rights instruments.
The report also documents the outgoing Parliament’s unwillingness to recognize the existing deficiencies in upholding core human rights issues. Dominated by Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and military-appointed MPs, Parliament has failed to amend or repeal many of Myanmar’s oppressive laws. MPs have also blocked key constitutional amendments and rejected numerous proposals aimed at addressing important human rights issues. In many cases, newly enacted legislation contained provisions that ran counter to international human rights standards. Other new laws prioritized political and economic interests over human rights.
“The new Parliament must make a clean break from the old regime and lead a genuine reform agenda. The first step forward should be the repeal of laws that perpetuate discrimination and impunity. Legislative and institutional reforms consistent with international human rights standards is the key to ensuring human security and sustainable socio-economic development,” said FIDH Secretary-General and ALTSEAN-Myanmar Coordinator Debbie Stothard.

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Myanmar has closed all of its temporary border

Myanmar has closed all of its temporary border ports and checkpoints along the Moei River opposite Thailand’s Mae Sot, Phop Phra, Mae Ramat and Tha Song Yang districts of Tak province ahead of the Nov 8 elections, reports said.
Only the official border checkpoint at the Thailand-Myanmar friendship bridge between Mae Sot and Myawaddy remains open.About 20 temporary river ports are affected. The transport of goods throughthese ports has been suspended, starting Nov 3, until after the elections at various levels in Myanmar on Nov 8 have been concluded.  Only local people residing along the river can cross the border through these ports.
As a result, the friendship bridge at Mae Sot has become unusually congested with a lot of cargo stalled on the Thai side of the border.
It was reported that the temporary closure of the river ports is to prevent some ethnic minority groups from crossing the border to disrupt the elections.
Security has been stepped up on the Thai side of the frontier with patrols deployed by the 4th Infantry Regiment and 35th Rangers Regiment and border patrol and provincial police.

MYANMAR PRESIDENT : ARAB SPRING-STYLE VIOLENCE

Myanmar president Thein Sein (C) followed by Myanmar military commender in chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing (C-L), gestures as he arrives Sittwe airport in Sittwe, Rakhine State, western Myanmar, 03 November 2015. Photo: Nyunt Win/EPA
Myanmar president Thein Sein (C) followed by Myanmar military commender in chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing (C-L), gestures as he arrives Sittwe airport in Sittwe, Rakhine State, western Myanmar, 03 November 2015. Photo: Nyunt Win/EPA
A video posted on the Facebook page of Myanmar’s president, raising the spectre of bloodshed and chaos akin to the Arab Spring aftermath if it loses power in Sunday’s polls, has drawn an angry response on social media.
The tightly edited four-minute feature was posted on the page of President Thein Sein, days before the country heads to the polls in landmark elections which are expected to see the opposition make major gains.
The video juxtaposes scenes of recent violence in the Middle East with shots of seeming tranquility and development in Myanmar during its transition towards democracy, backed by a heavy metal soundtrack.
It ends with the words: “Only when peace prevails will democratisation be implemented.”
“It was about the transformation of Myanmar into a democratic country,” ZawHtay, director of the president’s office, told AFP.
Thein Sein, a former general, and the ruling army-backed USDP party have positioned themselves as the guarantors of Myanmar’s stable progress as it shakes off decades of junta rule.
Unlike countries that suffered “blood streams, explosions, violent protests”, Myanmar has remained stable, ZawHtay said, since the army handed power to a quasi-civilian reformist government in 2011.
“Compared to those countries, we all know that our country developed step by step,” he added.
“We can’t become like America or Singapore right away, we have to wait.”
Religious violence has left hundreds dead in Myanmar since 2012, while several insurgencies continue to burn in the borderlands.
Many local social media users accused the president’s office of hypocrisy.
For decades Myanmar’s military ruled the country with an iron fist, crushing dissent and fixing — or simply ignoring — elections. Thein Sein rose to the highest echelons of the junta before trading in his uniform for civilian politics.
Human rights groups accuse the military of regular abuses in their fight against ethnic minority rebels. Others, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, have voiced fears the government is backsliding on reforms.
“Taking students to prison while they were protesting in Letpadan for our people’s education system, was that a peaceful way of transforming to democracy?” wrote Thet KoKo under the Facebook video on the president’s page — a reference to the recent arrest and trial of student protesters.
“The beautiful Kachin is now left with piles of waste soil… peaceful way huh?” wrote user PharsiMyae, a reference to military-controlled mining operations in the northern state of Kachin, which has been blighted by decades of war.
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Armed ethnic groups call for peace

NOVEMBER 4, 2015 | EDIT
The leaders of 11 armed ethnic groups that did not sign a nationwide ceasefire accord with the government last month have called for an end to military offensives in the country during a three-day summit Radio Free Asia reported on 3 November.
The summit, held at the headquarters of the United Wa State Army — Myanmar’s largest ethnic rebel group — in Panghsang, Wa Special Region, ended Tuesday with the groups issuing a seven-point statement urging the government army to stop its offensives in the northern and eastern parts of the country.
Clashes between government troops and ethnic armies have forced tens of thousands of villagers to flee their homes and resulted in casualties among government soldiers and rebel troops.
Besides the UWSA, the others groups that participated in the summit in eastern Shan state included the Kachin Independence Organization, Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army, New Mon State Party, Karenni National Progressive Party, National Democratic Alliance Army, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), Arakan Army (AA), Karen National Defence Organization and Kayan New Land Party.
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NOVEMBER 4, 2015 | EDIT
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Tow Tea: Parsing Tech Talk On Thursday, November 5th, the Tow Center for Digital Journalism hosts Farai Chideya and Josh Begley of The Intercept, along with Columbia Journalism School’s  Marguerite Holloway for a Tow Tea on “Parsing Tech Talk.”  The discussion will focus on tips and strategies for effectively reporting on science, medicine and technology – as well as how best to communicate these complex topics to a general audience.
Race & Digital Media On Wednesday, November 11th, the Tow Center, the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race and the MA Program for American Studies will host a panel discussion consisting of both academic and non-academic commentators on and practitioners of new media publishing. They will speak both about their sense of the contemporary situation of web publishing as well as their trajectories as professionals within the new media environment.
Virtual Reality JournalismOn Wednesday, November 11th, the Tow Center along with the Brown Institute for Media Innovation present a new report on Journalism in Virtual Reality, by Tow Center research Fellows Fergus Pitt and Taylor Owen.  The launch of this report coincides with the launch of “Ebola Outbreak: A Virtual Journey” on Gear VR; Ebola Outbreak is a collaborative project between PBS Frontline, The Secret Location, and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism.
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Input Please? Review v 0.1 of My Technology Criticism Reading List
Sara WatsonReading together has always been important to me. It’s the reason I started up an instance of Tech Book Club and helped kick off Angry Tech Salon back in Cambridge. Now that I’m in Singapore I have fewer opportunities to share reading notes in person. Thankfully, there’s internet! Inspired by other colleagues who conduct research in the open and share their process like Nate Matias recently did with his generals reading, I wanted do the same with my Tow Center Technology Criticism research.
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Nicholas DiakopoulosTwo teenage twins walk into the DMV in Georgia. Two teenage twins leave without their driver’s permits. What happened? An algorithm, that’s what. DMVs nationwide are adopting automated fraud detection systems that use computer vision algorithms to detect whether they think someone is trying to get a new license under an assumed name. The algorithm couldn’t figure out the difference between the twins and thought one of them a fraud. So, no permits. Ridiculous.
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Tow Tea: Computational Journalism in PracticeOn October 15, Meredith Broussard (NYU), Tom Kent (AP) and Olga Pierce (ProPublica) joined us for Tow Tea to discuss “Computational Journalism in Practice.” Below, learn a bit more about each panelists’ background, and their answer to a key question about computational journalism.
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NOVEMBER 4, 2015 | EDIT
Today at 12:47 AM
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Norwegian ship BOW VICTOR (IMO No.8416322) in Indian water at Kakinada,

NOVEMBER 4, 2015 | EDIT
 Imminent entry of Norwegian ship BOW VICTOR (IMO No.8416322) in Indian water at Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh in violation of Hon’ble Supreme Court’s order, Shipbreaking Code 2013 and Basel Convention
From: gopal krishna <1715krishna@gmail.com> Tue, 3 Nov ’15 8:49p
To: pjavadekar <pjavadekar@gmail.com> and others
1 attachment
                 ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA)
ToShri Prakash Javadekar
Union Minister of State for Environment, Forests & Climate Change
Government of India
New DelhiDate: 3rd November, 2015
Subject- Imminent entry of Norwegian ship BOW VICTOR (IMO No. 8416322) in Indian water at Kakinada, Andhra Pradeshin violation of Hon’ble Supreme Court’s order, Shipbreaking Code 2013 and Basel Convention
Sir,
This is to draw your urgent attention towards the imminent entry of an end-of- lifeNorwegian ship BOW VICTOR (IMO No.8416322) in Indian water at Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh based on the information gathered from Brussels based NGO Shipbreaking Platform. The picture of the obsolete ship is attached.
We submit that the ship was outside Madagascar on 22nd October, sailing at 11-12 knots, it will take 11-12 days to reach Kakinada, depending on weather conditions. This means the ship is likely to arrive at the port on one of these days as per the information of Norway based The Bellona Foundation.
We submit that entry of this end-of-life vessel, a oil/chemical tanker in Indian waters will be in violation of Hon’ble Supreme Court’s order, Shipbreaking Code 2013 and UN’s Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal.We submit that the ministry officials ought to ensure that the end-of-life vessel in question does not present a situation of fait accompli to the law enforcement agencies by anchoring and beaching without compliance with the Shipbreaking Code 2013, relevant Hon’ble Court’s order and Basel Convention.ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA) which as been working on the issue of hazardous wastes and ship breaking for over a decade appreciates and endorses your ministry’s position in the inter-ministerial Ship Breaking Scrap Committee, Ministry of Shipping wherein it was stated that “as a matter of policy they are not in favour of ship recycling industry breaking foreign ships in the country.”
In view of the above, we submit that India being a party to the Basel Convention, our government ought to take the necessary action and maintain its legal competency over end-of-life ships in order to avoid destruction of its coastal environment.
Thanking You
Yours faithfully
Gopal Krishna
ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA)
Mb: 08227816731, 09818089660
E-mail-1715krishna@gmail.com
Web: www.toxicswatch.org
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NOVEMBER 4, 2015 | EDIT
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