What UN General Assembly Resolutions Mean
("Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar" - a resolution adopted by consensus at the 55th Session of the UN General Assembly)

Comments by Burma UN Service Office
November 13, 2000, New York

Every year since 1991, the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly has been discussing the situation of human rights in Burma and adopting resolutions and recommendations by the General Assembly with regard to the ongoing human rights violations by the Burmese military junta. United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions by nature are not legally binding but they do bear the weight of moral authority and provide justification for the international community to exert pressure on the Burmese military regime to bring about change in Burma.

There has been a growing concern by the international community over the deteriorating situation in Burma. The country has become a top priority on the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly. The regime has only to blame itself for becoming isolated and without a friend to defend its position at General Assembly sessions. It fails to cooperate with relevant UN mechanisms, particularly with the UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur, and continues to make allowances for the human rights violations in Burma. Another factor that contributes to the regime's loss of credibility in the international arena is its repeated irrational excuses and lies to justify its crimes in the country.

Resolutions adopted by consensus annually for the past nine years underscore the fact that the international community is not swayed by the regime's excuses and that it is unhappy over the way political, economic, social, and human rights issues are being handled by the regime. The resolutions also indicate that the international community wants to see a political settlement and peaceful change in Burma through dialogue.
The resolution passed on 8 November this year was the strongest ever of the Burma resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly in terms of language and subject matter. The UN General Assembly not only raised questions about the violations of civil and political rights but also the deprivation of economic, social, and cultural rights. With regard to the regime's crackdown on the National League for Democracy, the General Assembly concluded that the regime's persecution of the democratic opposition was not ad hoc but a "systematic" perpetration. It urged the regime to remove all the restrictions against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and NLD members.

At every UNGA session the regime claims that steps were being taken gradually to transform Burma into a democratic society and that the National Convention process was a crucial step towards achieving that goal. UN missions that the NCGUB delegation have met express their doubts about "disciplined democracy" - a term the regime uses to describe the system the generals are trying to install.

The General Assembly was also critical of the composition of the regime's National Convention and the restrictions on freedom of expression imposed on the delegates to the convention. The substance of this year's resolution is that the old language on National Convention was juxtaposed with a new clause, which urges the regime to seek new and constructive means to promote national reconciliation and restore democracy. It also noted the need for "a time frame for action." In other words, the General Assembly was expressing its lack of confidence in the regime's National Convention and that it was impatient over the regime's delaying tactics through rhetoric and excuses which are never followed by action.

The National Convention lost its legitimacy at home since the NLD walked out from the process. The new clause in the UNGA resolution on the National Convention means the process has also lost "external legitimacy" as the international community has indicated that it cannot accept the National Convention as an appropriate means of pursuing democracy.

Operative Paragraph 14 in the UNGA resolution also shows a growing concern of the international community over intensifying human rights violations particularly against "ethnic minorities." The General Assembly concluded that "large-scale internal displacement" was the result of a "systematic" policy being pursued by the regime and it criticized the regime for depriving "ethnic minorities" of all means of subsistence.
The excuse that the Burmese military likes to give is that its first priority is to provide food, shelter, and clothing to the people and that civil and political rights of the people cannot yet be fully guaranteed at the present time of transition. In reality, no real effort has been made by the regime to halt the deteriorating economic and social conditions of the people during the 12 years of military rule. This negligence has caused alarming social consequences which UNICEF has termed as a "silent emergency." This is highlighted in the UNGA resolution which remarked that systematic violations of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights have had a significant adverse effect on health and welfare of the people. The UNGA expressed grave concern over the growing incidence of HIV/AIDS and high rates of malnutrition among pre-school-aged children and also criticized the regime for the violation of rights of women and children, including the recruitment of children as soldiers.

The UN Special Rapporteur submitted a report to the UNGA regarding Burma and many of the findings were incorporated into the resolution. The rapporteur noted that the absence of respect for rights pertaining to democratic governance is at the root of all the major violations of human rights in Burma. Some of the points cited by the UNGA were the regime's failure to halt its widespread and systematic use of forced labor which has compelled the International Labor Organization to take action, the lack of independence of judiciary and due process of law, which provided the opportunity to perpetrators of human rights to enjoy impunity, and the fact that the legal system was effectively being used as an instrument of oppression by the rulers.

Realizing that the only way to correct the deteriorating socio-economic and political conditions in Burma is through a process of national reconciliation, the 55th Session of the United Nations General Assembly urged the regime to restore democracy and promote national reconciliation through a substantive political dialogue. In this regard, the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General will be continuing to explore ways to resolve the political problems in Burma through dialogue. The UN General Assembly extended the mandate of the UN Secretary General to monitor the progress of the situation in Burma.

UN members have come to an agreement on the problems and the approach that the United Nations should take to resolve the issues in Burma. It is a matter of time before democracy comes to Burma. But, the time that will take for that to happen will depend on how individual member states actively support UN efforts to translate their visions into concrete results.