{"id":103963,"date":"2017-12-25T12:00:28","date_gmt":"2017-12-25T12:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=103963"},"modified":"2017-12-25T10:46:33","modified_gmt":"2017-12-25T10:46:33","slug":"un-rights-expert-disappointed-by-myanmars-decision-to-refuse-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/12\/un-rights-expert-disappointed-by-myanmars-decision-to-refuse-visit\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Rights Expert \u2018Disappointed\u2019 by Myanmar\u2019s Decision to Refuse Visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>20 Dec 2017<\/em> \u2013 The United Nations expert on the human rights situation in Myanmar today expressed disappointment at the government\u2019s decision to deny her all access to the country and withdraw cooperation for the duration of her tenure.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI am puzzled and disappointed<\/a> by this decision by the Myanmar Government,\u201d said UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee. \u201cThis declaration of non-cooperation with my mandate can only be viewed as a strong indication that there must be something terribly awful happening in Rakhine, as well as in the rest of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Yanghee Lee, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, briefs reporters at UN Headquarters.
UN Photo\/Kim Haughton<\/p><\/div>\n

Ms. Lee had been due to visit Myanmar in January to assess the state of human rights countrywide, including the human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State.<\/p>\n

The Special Rapporteur said she hoped Myanmar would revisit the decision.<\/p>\n

“This declaration of non-cooperation with my mandate can only be viewed as a strong indication that there must be something terribly awful happening in Rakhine, as well as in the rest of the country.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cOnly two weeks ago, Myanmar\u2019s Permanent Representative informed the Human Rights Council of its continuing cooperation with the UN, referencing the relationship with my role as Special Rapporteur,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I am being told that this decision to no longer cooperate with me is based on the statement I made after I visited the country in July.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Lee had previously been afforded cooperation and access to Myanmar, and had maintained a relationship of mutual respect with the Government. The Government has now claimed that her end-of-mission statement<\/a> in July was biased and unfair.<\/p>\n

The Special Rapporteur\u2019s mandate requires two visits to Myanmar a year, in order to report to the Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly. Since taking up the mandate in June 2014, she has visited six times.<\/p>\n

While the Government had responded positively to past requests to visit, access to some areas had been consistently refused, with the authorities citing security concerns.<\/p>\n

The Government is also not cooperating with the Human Rights Council independent international fact-finding mission on Myanmar, established in March 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a shame that Myanmar has decided to take this route,\u201d said Ms. Lee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government has repeatedly denied violations of human rights are occurring throughout Myanmar, particularly in Rakhine state. They have said that they have nothing to hide, but their lack of cooperation with my mandate and the fact-finding mission suggests otherwise,\u201d said the expert.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 un.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

20 Dec 2017 \u2013 The UN expert on the human rights situation in Myanmar today expressed disappointment at the government\u2019s decision to deny her all access to the country. “This declaration of non-cooperation with my mandate can only be viewed as a strong indication that there must be something terribly awful happening in Rakhine, as well as in the rest of the country.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":103965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-united-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}