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	Renew efforts to restore human rights and democracy in Myanmar by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights   July 2022   Myanmar junta's execution of four democracy activists condemned by UN. (UN News)   The independent UN human rights expert for Myanmar called for a strong international response on Monday following the executions of four pro-democracy activists by the country’s military junta. In a statement issued later in the day, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said she was "dismayed" that despite appeal from across the world, military leaders had move ahead with "no regard" for international rights law.   Thomas Andrews said he was “outraged and devastated” following what’s believed to be the first use of capital punishment in the Southeast Asian nation in decades.   The four - including activist Ko Jimmy and lawmaker Phyo Zeya Thaw - were convicted of helping to carry out alleged "terror acts".   “This cruel and regressive step is an extension of the military’s ongoing repressive campaign against its own people", said High Commissioner Bachelet.   “These executions – the first in Myanmar in decades - are cruel violations of the rights to life, liberty and security of a person, and fair trial guarantees. For the military to widen its killing will only deepen its entanglement in the crisis it has itself created.”   Ms. Bachelet called for the immediate release of all political prisoners and others arbitrarily detained, and urged the country to reinstate its de-facto moratorium on the use of the death penalty.   Sentenced to death in closed-door trials in January and April, the four men had been accused of helping insurgents to fight the army that seized power in a coup on February 1 last year, and unleashed a bloody crackdown which has resulted in multiple rights abuses.   Violations of international law   The executions were carried out despite worldwide pleas for clemency for the four men, including from UN experts and Cambodia, which holds the rotating chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).   Mr Andrews condemned the decision to go ahead with the executions when they were announced in June. In a statement he said the men were “tried, convicted and sentenced…without the right of appeal and reportedly without legal counsel, in violation of international human rights law.”   He called for “strong action” from UN Member States against the “widespread and systematic murders of protesters, indiscriminate attacks against entire villages and now the execution of opposition leaders.”   “The status quo of international inaction must be firmly rejected,” he added. In June, UN Secretary-General António Guterres also called for charges to be dropped "against those arrested on charges related to the exercise of their fundamental freedoms and rights, and for the immediate release of all political prisoners in Myanmar".   http://news.un.org/en/story/2022/06/1120152 http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2023/09/myanmar-turk-calls-new-thinking-end-unspeakable-tragedy   Mar. 2022   UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has urged the international community to intensify pressure on the military to stop its campaign of violence against the people of Myanmar and to insist on the prompt restoration of civilian rule.   “One year after the military seized power, the people of Myanmar – who have paid a high cost in both lives and freedoms lost – continue to advocate relentlessly for their democracy,” Bachelet said. “This week, I had a chance to speak in person with determined, courageous human rights defenders who are pleading to the international community not to abandon them, but to take robust, effective measures to ensure their rights are protected and the military is held accountable.”   “I urge governments – in the region and beyond – as well as businesses, to listen to this plea. It is time for an urgent, renewed effort to restore human rights and democracy in Myanmar and ensure that perpetrators of systemic human rights violations and abuses are held to account.”   Bachelet said she had heard chilling accounts of journalists being tortured; factory workers being intimidated, silenced and exploited; intensified persecution of ethnic and religious minorities – including the Rohingya; arbitrary arrests, detentions and sham trials of political opponents; “clearance operations” targeting villagers; and indiscriminate attacks including through airstrikes and the use of heavy weaponry in populated areas, showing gross disregard for human life.   “And yet, courageous human rights defenders and trade unionists continue to protest, to advocate, to document and accumulate the mounting evidence of violations,” she said.   The brutal effort by security forces to crush dissent has led to the killing of at least 1,500 people by the military since the 1 February coup – but that figure does not include thousands more deaths from armed conflict and violence, which have intensified nationwide.   The UN Human Rights Office has documented gross human rights violations on a daily basis, the vast majority committed by security forces. At least 11,787 people have been arbitrarily detained for voicing their opposition to the military either in peaceful protests or through their online activities, of whom 8,792 remain in custody. At least 290 have died in detention, many likely due to the use of torture.   Armed clashes have grown in frequency and intensity, with every part of the country experiencing some level of violence. In those areas of highest intensity military activity – Sagaing region, Chin, Kachin, Kayah and Kayin states – the military has been punishing local communities for their assumed support of armed elements. The Office has documented village burnings, including places of worship and medical clinics, mass arrests, summary executions and the use of torture.   The crisis has been exacerbated by the combined forces of the COVID-19 pandemic and the collapse of the banking, transportation, education and other sectors, leaving the economy on the brink of collapse. The daily lives of people have been severely impacted, with devastating effects on their enjoyment of economic and social rights. There are projections that nearly half of the population of 54 million may be driven into poverty this year.   “Members of Myanmar civil society have told me first-hand what the impact of the last year has been on their lives and those of their families and communities," Bachelet said. “The people have shown extraordinary courage and resilience in standing up for their basic human rights and support each other.   Now the international community must show its resolve to support them through concrete actions to end this crisis.”   While there has been near universal condemnation of the coup and the ensuing violence, the international response has been “ineffectual and lacks a sense of urgency commensurate to the magnitude of the crisis,” Bachelet said.   The actions taken by the UN Security Council and by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have been insufficient to convince Myanmar’s military to cease its violence and facilitate humanitarian access and aid deliveries.   The High Commissioner welcomed some private corporations’ decisions to withdraw based on human rights grounds, as a “powerful tool to apply pressure on the financing of the military’s operations against civilians”.   Bachelet also stressed that the current human rights crisis is “built upon the impunity with which the military leadership perpetrated the shocking campaign of violence resulting in gross human rights violations against the Rohingya communities of Myanmar four years ago – and other ethnic minorities over many decades beforehand.”   “As long as impunity prevails, stability in Myanmar will be a fiction. Accountability of the military remains crucial to any solution going forward – the people overwhelmingly demand this,” Bachelet said.   http://news.un.org/en/story/2022/03/1114382 http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/03/myanmar-un-report-urges-immediate-concerted-effort-international-community http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/ahrc4976-report-special-rapporteur-situation-human-rights-myanmar-thomas http://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/myanmar-humanitarian-response-plan-2022-january-2022 http://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/joint-statement-one-year-after-myanmar-military-s-seizure-power-aid-agencies-call   Mar. 2022   Belarus: UN report details scale and patterns of human rights violations committed with impunity. (OHCHR)   The fundamental human rights of tens of thousands of people in Belarus have been violated and the lives of countless others negatively affected by the Government’s continued crackdown on opponents, civil society, journalists and lawyers, without yet seeing the perpetrators held accountable, a report published today by the UN Human Rights Office says.   The report details the findings of OHCHR’s examination of the human right situation in Belarus, mandated by the UN Human Rights Council. This review covered the run-up to the 9 August 2020 elections and the aftermath up to 31 December 2021, drawing on 145 first-hand interviews, as well as analysis of a wide range of information and evidence.   When the incumbent President declared electoral victory on 9 August, hundreds of thousands rallied to voice their opposition peacefully, meeting a “massive and violent crackdown”, the report says, with arrests and detentions reaching a scale unprecedented in Belarus.   From the testimonies provided to OHCHR’s examination, it appears that arrests were largely random, with security forces pursuing and subduing any person within reach. In addition, men without insignia and wearing balaclavas took part in the forced dispersal of protests, “creating a climate of fear and lawlessness,” the report says. Broad use of unnecessary and disproportionate force repeatedly violated people’s rights, including to freedom of expression, assembly and association.   In total, between May 2020 and May 2021, at least 37,000 people were detained, many of them placed in administrative detention for up to 15 days. Of this total, some 13,500 people were arbitrarily arrested and detained between 9 and 14 August alone.   The information collected by the examination indicates that torture and ill-treatment were widespread and systematic, with individuals targeted for their real or perceived opposition to the Government or the election results. Many victims feared filing a complaint, while those who did had their cases dismissed.   By the end of 2021, 969 people were in prison on what OHCHR’s examination had reasonable grounds to believe were politically motivated charges, with several individuals given sentences of 10 years or more. By 4 March 2022, this figure had risen to 1,084.   After the election, the Government continued to harass those seeking to exercise their rights. In September 2020, the authorities began pressing charges against opposition figures, human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers and ordinary citizens, a trend that continued throughout 2021, with the Government also passing a raft of legislative amendments that further curbed the exercise of fundamental freedoms.   Civil society and human rights organizations, as well independent media, continued to be targeted. By October, 270 NGOs had been closed down, and by the end of the year, 32 journalists had been detained and 13 media outlets declared “extremist”.   Lawyers who defended dissidents, spoke out about human rights violations or brought cases to UN human rights mechanisms were detained, intimidated, faced disciplinary sanctions or were even disbarred. As of November 2021, 36 lawyers had lost their licences.   Among its conclusions, OHCHR’s examination found that individuals were targeted following a consistent pattern of unnecessary or disproportionate use of force, arrests, detention – including incommunicado detention – torture or ill-treatment, rape and sexual and gender-based violence and the systematic denial of due process and fair trial rights.   The report also concludes that the scale and patterns of the violations identified, their widespread and systematic nature, and the evidence of official policy, knowledge and direction of their collective execution by multiple State organs requires further assessment of the available evidence from the perspective of applicable international criminal law. This is particularly the case in relation to mass arbitrary detentions from 9 to 14 August 2020.   In addition, the failure to effectively investigate human rights violations contravenes Belarus’ obligations under international human rights law. Beside the lack of investigations, “there was an active policy to shield perpetrators and prevent accountability, reflected in the level of reprisals, intimidation of victims and witnesses, attacks on lawyers and human rights defenders,” the report says.   “The examination not only lays bare the violations inflicted on people trying to exercise their fundamental human rights, but highlights the inability of victims to access justice,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.   “The authorities’ extensive and sustained actions to crush dissent and repress civil society, independent media and opposition groups, while at the same time shielding perpetrators, points to a situation of complete impunity in Belarus,” Bachelet said.   The report makes detailed recommendations to Belarus and other States to work towards accountability through available legal processes for serious violations of international human rights law in Belarus.   http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/05/belarus-new-death-penalty-law-is-the-ultimate-attack-on-human-rights/ Visit the related web page
	Corruption, human rights and democracy by Transparency International, agencies   Jan. 2022   More than 60 years ago, states approved, almost unanimously, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This document outlines 30 rights and freedoms that every human should enjoy, including the right to be free from torture, the right to freedom of expression and other civil and political rights. Many of these inalienable rights and freedoms continue to be under threat today, as democracy retreats and authoritarian regimes take their place.   From the arrests of activists and journalists in Belarus, to the closing of media outlets and civil society organisations in Nicaragua, the deadly violence against protesters in Sudan and the killing of human rights defenders in the Philippines – human rights and democracy are in retreat around the world:   Last year, Freedom House highlighted that 86 per cent of countries stagnated or registered a decline in human rights and democracy.   Analysis by the Economist Intelligence Unit shows that 90 per cent of countries have stagnated or declined in their civil liberties score since 2012.   Amnesty International highlights repression of dissent as one of the key global trends in human rights abuses in 2021 and emphasises the attacks on journalists and activists, many of whom were exposing or protesting against corruption.   While all states have a responsibility to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of all people, the presence of corruption can weaken a government’s ability to do so by undermining the overall functioning of the state – from the delivery of public services, to the dispensation of justice and the provision of safety for everyone.   More specifically, the duty to respect means that the state must not act in violation of human rights, for example, by using violence against peaceful demonstrators.   Corruption can undermine this obligation when, for example, the government instrumentalises the police or judiciary to unfairly detain, arrest or intimidate opponents or dissidents.   Corruption in law enforcement can jeopardise people’s safety and victims' access to justice. On the one hand, corruption in law enforcement can drive human right violations such as ill-treatment or torture in the hands of officers including in detention settings or through police practices.   In other cases, corruption might permeate the administration of justice including by slowing investigations into human rights violations and affecting due process.   What is more, corruption and impunity contribute to an unsafe climate for human rights defenders to operate in. Having examined the data collected by Frontline Defenders, we found that out of the 331 cases of murdered human rights defenders in 25 countries in 2020, 98 per cent of those deaths occurred in 23 countries with high levels of public sector corruption, or a CPI score below 45. Moreover, at least 20 of all cases were registered as killings of human rights defenders dealing with anti-corruption issues.   Corruption and murdered human rights defenders   The second state obligation, to protect, means that governments should ensure that no one infringes the rights of its people. Corruption can also undermine this obligation. Organised criminal groups routinely murder journalists and human rights defenders and the state often fails to protect their safety.   Similarly, private actors can rely on bribery and/or personal connections to ensure that the state turns a blind eye to human rights abuses.   If the state fails to prevent a company, which has made a large campaign donation, from polluting a water source on which people depend on and puts their health at risk, the state is effectively failing in its obligation to protect.   Finally, corruption can directly undermine a government’s ability to fulfil its human rights obligations to take positive actions to guarantee the enjoyment of basic human rights.   When states allow the embezzlement of public funds meant to be spent on providing healthcare or when rigged public procurement processes fail to deliver the necessary goods and services for education, states fail in their responsibility to fulfil the rights to health and education.   While all three obligations are equally important, state failure to respect human rights can lead to catastrophic consequences for democracy and the rule of law, as it can subvert fundamental rights which are critical for government accountability, such as freedom of expression, assembly and association.   This, in turn, makes it harder to keep corruption in check and can lead to a vicious cycle of corruption, human rights abuses, and democratic decline.   Corruption and abuse of civil liberties go hand-in-hand. The civil liberties score, a dimension of the Democracy Index from the Economist Intelligence Unit, contains indicators on freedom of expression, association, assembly, personal safety and access to justice, among others. What we observe is that there is a strong and positive correlation between good governance and the respect of human rights and that very few countries have managed to establish effective control of corruption without also respecting human rights.   Corruption and breaches of civil liberties   Keeping corruption out of the public eye is essential to ensure that those who participate in it face no consequences. Restricting freedoms of expression, association and assembly is thus a popular tactic to weaken societal checks on corruption, reducing the chances of being denounced for engaging in corruption and facing consequences.   Simultaneously, this helps to perpetuate corrupt networks and practices. To ensure they face no legal consequences, in some cases corrupt officials also capture the judiciary and independent oversight institutions. To prevent loss of their privileges, corrupt and their cronies often resort to oppressive measures, curtailing civil liberties.   Take Nicaragua, for example, where President Daniel Ortega has ruled since 2007 and the country has experienced democratic decline, along with restrictions to fundamental freedoms and rampant corruption. Nicaragua is one of the significant decliners on the 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), having dropped from a score of 29 in 2012 to 20 in 2021.   Nicaragua now ranks in the bottom 20 countries on the Index. At the same time, Nicaragua’s scores on V-Dem’s “Freedom of Expression”, “Freedom of Association” and “Access to Justice” indicators have dropped to record low levels. Corruption in the justice system and total capture of the courts by the executive means that human rights abuses go unchecked, providing no access to justice or remedy for victims in the country. At the same time, politically motivated corruption charges against opposition figures further impinge on political rights and liberties while government officials face virtually no accountability for acts of corruption.   This climate of total impunity allows the government to further restrict fundamental rights, like freedom of expression, association and assembly. In some cases, they become direct attacks.   In 2019, one of the oldest newspapers in Nicaragua, El Nuevo Diario, reported that it was forced to close after authorities prevented it from obtaining newsprint and ink. Furthermore, between March and July 2020, Nicaragua’s Observatory of Aggressions on the Independent Press reported 351 attacks including unjust prosecutions, arbitrary detentions and harassment of media workers and their families. Human rights abuses continue, including bans on protests, attacks on freedom of expression, and the stigmatisation and persecution of journalists and human rights defenders.   Attacks on checks and balances as well as on civil liberties do not only occur in countries with systemic corruption and weak democratic institutions, but also in consolidated democracies. Hungary serves as a cautionary tale where following corruption and full capture of the state, the country has fallen to the lowest score in the Freedom in the World Index since the end of the communist regime in 1989. The abuse of media, civic space and the judiciary by democratic governments alleged to be involved in corruption has also been prevalent in Czechia, Slovenia and Brazil, among others.   What is more, not everyone is equally able to challenge corruption. Repressive officials or those seeking to silence anti-corruption campaigners are less likely to fear being held to account when they target individuals from marginalised groups. People from discriminated groups are therefore more exposed to potential backlashes and human rights abuses when they try to make their voices heard.   The enhanced level of danger also applies to anti-corruption campaigners who champion the cause of discriminated groups, such as Transparency International’s chapter in Guatemala, which seeks to uncover and challenge acts of collusive corruption between state officials and mining companies that harm Indigenous Peoples.   Transnational corruption as enabler of human rights abuses   Various actors in the top-scoring countries are all too eager to help authoritarian and kleptocratic regimes clean their reputations – not just their money.   The case of Kazakhstan and the United Kingdom shows this corrupt backscratching at work. The heavy-handed response to protests in the country in early January made international headlines, echoing events of the Zhanaozen massacre from 10 years ago. Nursultan Nazarbayev, the country’s president at that time turned to the UK’s former prime minister Tony Blair to help him with his image. In a leaked letter Blair reportedly advised and provided Nazarbayev with talking points on how to handle critical questions about Zhanaozen.   Months later, the government jailed an opposition leader for allegedly orchestrating the events. Blair continued to defend Kazakhstan’s regime on various occasions.   More international coordination is needed to ensure that foreign dictators and western enablers do not circumvent anti-money laundering and sanctions regimes.   Transnational corruption enables human rights abuses and exacerbates repression by allowing autocrats to:   Enjoy looted funds and reward cronies. Without the help of professional enablers like complicit bankers, lawyers, accountants, real-estate brokers etc, kleptocrats would not be able to enjoy their funds and pay off those who support them. In turn this means that they can stay in power by buying support and dispensing patronage to cronies.   Launder their reputation abroad. By employing western public relations firms, lobby professionals and even funding universities kleptocrats and autocrats ensure that little pressure will come to bear from the international community on their human rights abuses record.   Evade accountability. By hiding their financial transactions, autocrats make it almost impossible for law enforcement or judicial bodies, at home or abroad, to find traces of their malfeasance, ensuring they stay in power and unscathed. They can also bypass sanctions regimes, such as those aimed directly at human rights abusers through the Global Magnitsky Act or similar legislation.   In 2017, the Azerbaijani Laundromat investigations found how a network of slush funds financed Azerbaijan’s bribe-induced foreign policy and reputation. Three Spanish delegates to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) are suspected of benefiting from the Laundromat. In return, they allegedly watered down the human rights body’s criticism of events in Azerbaijan under the country’s repressive authoritarian regime.   In 2021, authorities in Germany expanded their previous investigations into the Azerbaijani Laundromat. Another (now former) German parliamentarian is under investigation for similar reasons. Transnational corruption schemes allowed the Azerbaijani government to conduct a type of caviar diplomacy, bribing abroad and shoring up support from cronies at home.   Effects on democracy and corruption   Civil and political rights including freedom of expression, freedom of association and assembly, as well as access to justice are integral to healthy democracies. They guarantee the participation of citizens and groups in democratic and policy processes and can help keep corruption in check.   The current wave of autocratisation is not primarily driven by coups and violence, but rather by efforts to undermine democracy gradually. The descent into authoritarianism usually begins with violations to people’s civil and political rights, attacks on civil and political rights, efforts to undermine the autonomy of oversight undermining election management bodies, and trying to control or directly attack the media to help disseminate the regime’s ideology while supressing criticism.   The case of Belarus, which this year fell 6 points in the CPI score this year, perfectly illustrates the limits of this top-down model and how the apparent successes in controlling corruption can quickly prove illusory where they are subject to the whims of a dictator or a regime that does not allow criticism, opposition or political competition. The country also serves as a cautionary tale for similar regimes.   Sustainable anti-corruption strategies go hand in hand with the protection of universal human rights and fundamental freedoms. Transparency International recognises that corruption cannot be countered without fundamental human freedoms to organise, associate, access information and speak up as well as a free and independent media.   To end the vicious cycle of corruption, human rights violations and democratic decline, people should demand that their governments:   Uphold the rights needed to hold power to account.   Governments should roll back any disproportionate restrictions on freedoms of expression, association and assembly introduced since the onset of the pandemic. Ensuring justice for crimes against human rights defenders must also be an urgent priority.   Restore and strengthen institutional checks on power.   Public oversight bodies such as anti-corruption agencies and supreme audit institutions need to be independent, well- resourced and empowered to detect and sanction wrongdoing. Parliaments and the courts should also be vigilant in preventing executive overreach.   Combat transnational forms of corruption.   Governments in advanced economies need to fix the systemic weaknesses that allow cross-border corruption to go undetected or unsanctioned. They must close legal loopholes, regulate professional enablers of financial crime, and ensure that the corrupt and their accomplices cannot escape justice.   Uphold the right to information in government spending.   As part of their COVID-19 recovery efforts, governments must make good on their pledge contained in the June 2021 Special session of the UN General Assembly against corruption political declaration to include anti-corruption safeguards in public procurement. Maximum transparency in public spending protects lives and livelihoods.   http://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2021 http://www.transparency.org/en/news/cpi-2021-trouble-at-the-top http://www.transparency.org/en/news/cpi-2021-corruption-human-rights-democracy http://www.eiu.com/n/campaigns/democracy-index-2020 Visit the related web page
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