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A team of UN experts has added their weight to growing calls for Burma’s government to scrap proposed contentious legislation that would restrict religious freedoms. In a joint statement released Friday, 20th June, the UN experts – on freedom of religion, minority issues and human rights in Burma – maintained that the draft bill made religious conversion more difficult and…

Human rights experts and religious leaders have warned that Burma’s proposed religion laws, regarding conversion and inter-religious marriage, violate fundamental human rights and will further fuel “intolerance and hatred” against the country’s ethnic and religious minorities. Two proposed laws that have been granted endorsement from Burma’s president, represent a direct threat to the country’s ethnic and religious minorities, human rights…

The Burma Army in Tanintharyi Township attacked the base of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) in the Huaypha area killing one KNLA soldier and wounding another. Sources close to the Karen National Union (KNU) in the Megui/Tavoy District confirmed to Karen News and added details of the attack. The KNU sources said that Burma Army soldiers from Light Infantry…

To commemorate World Day Against Child Labour, Karen News spoke to child workers who scrape a meager living from collecting garbage in the Thai-Burma border town of Mae Sot. Too poor to go to school, they work unnoticed, working long days to help support their families. The children told Karen News of their hopes, dreams and daily concerns. Hla Hla…

Burma focused international human rights advocacy organisations, youth groups and unions, have marked the third anniversary of the conflict in Kachin State by urging the Burma’s government to commit to peace. The Kachin State conflict, which first erupted, following a Burma Army offensive against the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) in June 2011, shattered a 17-year ceasefire and has so far…

Burma Army offensives in Kachin State are undermining the peace process, an ethnic women’s organisation has claimed. The Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT) expressed concern of the recent escalation in Burma Army attacks in Kachin and Shan States, which had led to “fresh displacement and suffering” of local civilians in a statement released today. “These systematic operations to seize control…

Burma’s military is engaging in systemic torture against civilians in its ongoing war in Kachin State, now in its third year, and committing “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity,” a leading human rights watchdog has claimed in a report released today. The 71-page report entitled, Ending Wartime Torture in Northern Myanmar, by Fortify Rights, documents the torture and abuse of…

Naw Bway Paw looks out of her windowless thatched bamboo home in Hlaing Bwe Township, Karen State, and remembers the day in 1996 when the Burma Army came and took her land. Naw Bway Paw in a video interview with Karen News describes how she lost her ancestral home and lands. “One day a soldier arrived at my home in…

Alarm is mounting over a suit of newly proposed laws regarding marriage and religion, proposed by a group allegedly connected to the extremist Buddhist nationalist ‘969’ movement, with international rights watchdogs and community groups alike warning that they discriminate against minorities and could further inflame inter-communal violence. Burma’s government is currently considering four laws related to marriage, religion, polygamy and…

Burma’s election body, the Union Electoral Commission (UEC), has been accused of intimidating the opposition party, the National League for Democracy, after warning the NLD Chairwoman, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, of violating the country’s constitution at a political rally earlier this month. In a letter to the NLD, the UEC claimed that Chairwoman Aung San Suu Kyi had made…