Arakan News Agency
Human Rights Watch said the United Nations needs to stand up on its ability to carry out its mandated fact-finding mission in Myanmar, after releasing a series of questions and answers on the topic.
In March 2017, the UN Human Rights Council established a fact-finding mission to investigate alleged human rights abuses in Myanmar. Since then, however, various Myanmar government officials have publicly said the government plans to block these efforts by denying visas to mission members. The mission will officially begin its work in August.
John Fisher, director of Human Rights Watch in Geneva, said Myanmar’s threat to block the UN Fact-Finding Mission from entering the country will only end up harming the government’s standing on human rights, “Even if the mission doesn’t get access, we’re confident that they will carry out their work and produce a report that advances justice for the victims of human rights abuses in Myanmar.”
Human Rights Watch said that if Myanmar continued to threaten and refused to grant visas to members of the mission, it would join a group of pariah states, including North Korea, Syria, Eritrea and Burundi, which prevented the fact-finding and access to their country.
Human Rights Watch confirmed that it had issued these questions and answers to confirm the need for the work of the fact-finding mission, to clarify the scope of its work, and to highlight the government’s attempts to block it.
The document presents key questions about the mission and its work, the current human rights situation in Myanmar and the possible impact of visa restrictions on the Mission.
