human rights

A wide and diverse range of women groups and civil society organisations have released the following statement on the government’s draft Interfaith Marriage Law. Karen News have taken the decision to run the full statement to generate debate and understanding in the community of the issues involved. *Statement of Women’s Groups and CSOs on preparation of draft Interfaith Marriage Law…

In a statement released to mark Press Freedom Day, Human Rights Watch condemned Burma’s government over the arrest and intimidation of journalists and called for new media laws to protect and promote a free press. Phil Robertson, HRW’s deputy Asia director called for press freedom. “International praise for expanding media freedoms in Burma has been undercut by arrests and intimidation…

UN Secretary General states that impunity by Burma’s authorities regarding human rights violations could risk serious international consequences. In an April 25 speech to the Partnership Group on Burma in New York, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, said that if Burma’s authorities tolerated impunity for human rights violations it risked “negative pressures within the international community and among different…

Human rights organisations are expressing grave concerns over the fate of a prominent ethnic Karen activist who disappeared after reportedly being arrested on April 17 at Kaengkrachan National Park in Petchaburi province by Thai authorities. The New York based Human Rights Watch said it was concerned that Por Cha Lee Rakcharoen, also known as Billy, had been “forcibly disappeared.” HRW…

International pressure for an investigation into sexual violence in Burma is mounting, with the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calling for the Burma government to co-operate with the UN on the issue. Ban Ki-moon called on the Burma Government to investigate human rights abuses, including sexual violence. “I call on the Government of Myanmar to fully investigate and respond…

In an exclusive interview with Karen News, the Secretary of the Karen Women’s Organization (KWO), a community based organisation representing more than 49,000 women including refugees in Thailand and internally displaced persons inside Burma, said that ethnic women were second-class citizens in their own country. “We are not only ignored, we are being abused and victimized. The peace talks don’t…

Human rights organisations and ethnic political groups have called for an international investigation into systematic sexual abuses committed by the Burma Army, noting that reports of rape continue to emerge three years after reformist President Thein Sein’s administration took power. The Kachin National Oganisation, a political party from Kachin State, called for an international investigation and alleged it had documented…

Burma Army soldiers from Light Infantry Battalion 515 have allegedly stabbed and robbed a villager in Shan State on the 23rd of March. Shan Human Rights Foundation said that the victim, a 46 year-old villager, was handing out invitation letters for his son’s ordination ceremony when two Burma Army soldiers held him at knife point and badly beat him. “The…

Chin refugees in India fleeing persecution in Burma are left to fend for themselves as the UNHCR and local organisations tasked with protecting them fall prey to a “culture of denial and victim-blaming,” says the Chin Human Rights Organisation. The Chin Human Rights Organisation (CHRO), a non-governmental human rights watchdog founded in 1995, has warned that hundreds of Chin refugee…

Burma’s census discriminates against ethnic Rohingya Muslims by refusing to recognise their existence, according to international rights groups, with even the UN agency tasked with carrying out the census expressing deep concerns. A man picks at a bruised piece of fruit, takes a bite and sets it down on a bench in a small shop on the Thai Burma border.…