ENHANCING HUMAN RIGHTS IN MYANMAR THROUGH ACCEPTED RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW (UPR)

Group discussion about landrights conducting at Kayin State. (Photo: LWF Field Staff)

After a workshop on the United Nations Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review (UPR) had been conducted on a national level in Nay Pyi Taw in 2016, the government set up an Action Plan for the implementation of the recommendations through an inter-ministerial committee. This is the initial roadmap for holding the government accountable for implementing the 166 accepted recommendations.

In 2017, LWF Myanmar continued working on Land Rights and Land Registration, Birth Registration, Right to Water, Women's Rights and Citizenship Rights in collaboration with the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC), Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement (MSWRR), Township Department of Health, Department of Agriculture, Village Agriculture Land Management, Department of Immigration and Gender Equality Network (GEN) to meet the overall objective of UPR: People are able to access their fundamental human rights.

As a new “Local to Global” initiative, the project has introduced new ways of working and effectively linked local-level rights-based action for change to national and international-level advocacy.

In order to promote women's roles in decision-making and strengthen their capacities to be enabled in the development processes, LWF Myanmar conducted a “Gender and Gender Based Violence” training for a women group in Kayin State, encouraging them to develop plans to share peer to peer in the village and role plays to deliver messages in an effective way. Likewise, women empowerment in the role of leading and developing networking strategy was also strengthened at the “Annual Women Group Networking Meeting” in Dedaye Township in Delta.

The main objective of this workshop was for participants to understand the UPR Accepted Recommendations to Township Government Officials from different departments, the village authorities and the leaders from village development committees (VDC) and groups. 6 women and 28 men participated in the workshop.

LWF Myanmar organized a workshop on meeting with duty bearers and rights holders at the township level for providing awareness on One Stop Shop Services, which links communities with all respective government departments. This activity was successfully completed in 4 townships and participants left with a clear understanding of the various services available.

The Land Rights and Land Registration, Birth Registration Process Training was organized in 3 field offices for the staff. This is valuable training for the staff as it ensures that communities receive accurate and adequate information on these topics.

LWF Myanmar in collaboration with the Land Core Group and UNICEF distributed Information Education Communication (IEC) Materials related to Land Law and Birth Registration to distribute to communities. The IEC messages can help to improve the knowledge of communities and empower them to claim their rights. The IEC material supported the dissemination of knowledge received during the Land Rights and Birth Registration Trainings.