{"id":2410,"date":"2022-12-21T04:33:14","date_gmt":"2022-12-21T04:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/?p=2410"},"modified":"2022-12-23T04:37:14","modified_gmt":"2022-12-23T04:37:14","slug":"un-security-council-historic-censure-of-myanmar-junta-first-such-resolution-recognizes-peoples-brave-calls-for-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/un-security-council-historic-censure-of-myanmar-junta-first-such-resolution-recognizes-peoples-brave-calls-for-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Security Council: Historic Censure of Myanmar Junta First Such Resolution Recognizes People\u2019s Brave Calls for Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

(New York) \u2013 The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on December 21, 2022, denouncing the\u00a0Myanmar<\/a>\u00a0military\u2019s rights violations since the February 1, 2021 coup, Human Rights Watch said today. The landmark resolution, passed with 12 yes votes and 3 abstentions, reflects the Myanmar junta\u2019s growing isolation generated by security force abuses amounting to crimes against humanity and war crimes.<\/p>\n

It is the first Security Council resolution on Myanmar since the country, formerly known as Burma, acquired independence from Britain in 1948.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Security Council resolution is a momentous step on behalf of the people of Myanmar, opening the door toward holding Myanmar\u2019s brutal generals to account,\u201d said\u00a0Elaine Pearson<\/a>, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cThe resolution should bring renewed scrutiny to the junta\u2019s daily atrocities and recognition of the Myanmar people\u2019s brave efforts toward democracy and freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

The resolution, which the United Kingdom drafted under the UN Charter\u2019s\u00a0Chapter VI<\/a>\u00a0concerning \u201cpacific settlement of disputes,\u201d expresses deep concern at the \u201congoing state of emergency imposed by the military in Myanmar on 1 February 2021 and its grave impact on the people of Myanmar.\u201d It condemns the military\u2019s\u00a0execution of pro-democracy activists<\/a>, urges the military to \u201cimmediately release all arbitrarily detained prisoners,\u201d and demands an \u201cimmediate end to all forms of violence throughout the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The resolution includes numerous references to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which adopted a \u201cfive-point consensus\u201d in April 2021 in response to the Myanmar coup. Junta chief Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing\u00a0has since defied each point<\/a>\u00a0of the consensus while exploiting the international community\u2019s deference to the regional bloc, Human Rights Watch said. The secretary-general or his special envoy on Myanmar is tasked with reporting orally by March 15, 2023, to the Security Council on UN support for implementation of the five-point consensus.<\/p>\n

All Security Council members voted for the resolution, except for China, India, and Russia, which abstained.<\/p>\n

The junta\u2019s\u00a0widespread and systematic abuses<\/a>\u00a0since the coup \u2013 including extrajudicial killings, torture, and indiscriminate attacks on civilians \u2013 amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes. Security forces\u00a0have killed<\/a>\u00a0over 2,600 people and arbitrarily arrested over 16,000, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.<\/p>\n

The military has expanded abusive operations in ethnic minority areas, displacing more than one million people, and\u00a0deliberately blocked<\/a>\u00a0humanitarian assistance from reaching populations in need as a form of collective punishment. The resolution calls for \u201cfull, safe and unhindered humanitarian access,\u201d expressing deep concern at the \u201cincreasingly large numbers of internally displaced persons and dramatic increase in humanitarian need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Activists in Myanmar have pressed for a Security Council resolution on the country for decades. China and Russia\u00a0vetoed<\/a>\u00a0a 2007 draft condemning the then-military government\u2019s attacks on civilians and detention of political prisoners. Calls for a resolution by UN experts, human rights groups, and others in response to the\u00a0atrocities against the Rohingya<\/a>\u00a0in 2017 went unanswered. This was largely due to China and Russia\u2019s resistance, but also concerns on the part of Western governments of alienating the now-ousted civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been in military custody since the coup.<\/p>\n

The Security Council has issued statements of condemnation on Myanmar in the past and received numerous briefings from UN experts and the secretary-general. Under resolutions of the\u00a0Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict, the council has debated reports on abuses against children in Myanmar. This resolution represents a significant escalation of the council\u2019s engagement on Myanmar and offers a basis for sustained future monitoring of the situation in the country, Human Rights Watch said.<\/p>\n

This first-step resolution should be followed by close monitoring and reporting on the junta\u2019s compliance and further action by the council. Human Rights Watch has long called on the Security Council to impose a global arms embargo, refer the country situation to the International Criminal Court, and impose targeted sanctions on junta leadership and military-owned companies. The initial draft of the resolution called for an immediate end to arms sales to Myanmar, which was later removed.<\/p>\n

\u201cChina and Russia\u2019s abstentions signal that even the junta\u2019s few friends have lost interest in sticking out their necks to defend its atrocities,\u201d said\u00a0Louis Charbonneau<\/a>, UN director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cThe building blocks put in place with this resolution offer a starting point for reinvigorating pressure on the junta among Security Council members and governments across the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(New York) \u2013 The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on December 21, 2022, denouncing the\u00a0Myanmar\u00a0military\u2019s rights violations since the February 1, 2021 coup, Human Rights Watch said today. The landmark resolution, passed with 12 yes votes and 3 abstentions, reflects the Myanmar junta\u2019s growing isolation generated by security force abuses amounting to crimes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,41,37,14,3,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2410"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2412,"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2410\/revisions\/2412"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}