PRESS CONFERENCE BY SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN MYANMAR

PRESS CONFERENCE BY SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN MYANMAR

The human rights situation in Myanmar had changed very little in the last couple of years, without any significant improvements being made, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar told a Headquarters press conference today. 

“It is very difficult to make a political transition with political prisoners, without any one of the basic freedoms.  You cannot have one of the main political leaders under house arrest in solitary confinement in her house”, said Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

The Government of Myanmar, he said, had not allowed him to enter the country in the last two years, significantly hampering his final report to the Commission.  While the Government had not encouraged the international community’s participation in the negotiations on the political situation in Myanmar, isolation was not the answer to help the country move ahead. 

Noting that diplomacy was missing from the process, he said that as long as the international community refused to reach out to the leadership of Myanmar and use quiet diplomacy, as opposed to megaphone diplomacy, the situation would not advance.

“You have to be silent and persistent, and not use the approach of carrot and stick.  You don’t treat countries with carrots and sticks.  This is not diplomacy”, he said.

Responding to a question about whether there was still a role for the Special Rapporteur, in light of Myanmar’s resistance, Mr. Pinheiro said that it was important to maintain the position, adding that the Commission needed to give more support to the mandate.  “I never received any specific support from the bureau of the Commission on Human Rights after my nomination.”  Without a Special Rapporteur, Member States could not be held accountable for their human rights record, he said.

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For information media • not an official record