The second coordination meeting of the national-level committee on implementing recommendations of Universal Periodic Review (UPR) was held yesterday morning at the meeting hall of the Ministry of Home Affairs in Nay Pyi Taw. Committee Chairman Vice President U Myint Swe delivered a speech at the meeting.
 

Present at the meeting were Vice Chairmen of the committee Union Minister for Home Affairs Lt-Gen Kyaw Swe, Union Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Dr. Win Myat Aye and Union Attorney-General U Tun Tun Oo, committee members Myanmar National Human Rights Commission Chairman U Win Mra, Judge Advocate-General Lt-Gen Aung Lin Dway, Deputy Ministers Maj-Gen Aung Thu, Maj-Gen Than Htut, U Aung Hla Tun and Dr. Daw Mya Lay Sein, Permanent Secretaries, Directors General, Secretary of Myanmar Women’s Affairs Federation, Secretary of the Myanmar Maternal and Child Welfare Association and officials.

In his speech Vice President U Myint Swe said the 25-member Committee was formed with five work functions by the President Office on 19 October 2018 to establish and implement short term plans systematically before submitting a Third Cycle report of UPR in response to suggestions made on the UPR Second Cycle report. The five work functions were being implemented by forming 23-member Report Preparation Work Committee, 21-member Paper Preparation Work Committee and 7-member Committee to Communicate with Organizations on 30 April 2019.

In doing so 166 recommendations accepted by Myanmar during the Second Cycle of UPR was being implemented by setting up 12 sectors and assigning responsible ministries and organizations for each sector. Of the responsible ministries and organizations for the 12 sectors, 41 recommendations on acceding to international human rights treaties were handled by Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 7 recommendations related to national human rights commission were handled by Myanmar National Human Rights Commission. 4 recommendations related to cooperation with United Nations Human Rights Mechanism were handled by Ministry of International Cooperation. 19 recommendations on democracy, peace, rule of law and human rights reform matters were handled by Union Attorney General Office. 12 recommendations on economic development were handled by Ministry of Planning and Finance. 10 recommendations on implementing good governance system and land confiscation were handled by Ministry of Home Affairs. 15 recommendations on promoting gender equality and protection of vulnerable groups and 15 recommendations on non-discrimination were handled by Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement. 13 recommendations on health and education were handled by Ministry of Education. 18 recommendations on interfaith, freedom of expression and peaceful assembly were handled by Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture. 7 recommendations on citizenship assessment, internally displaced persons and human trafficking were handled by Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population. 5 recommendations on ceasefire and national reconciliation were handled by Ministry of State Counsellor’s Office. According to submissions made by the ministries and organizations, of the 166 recommendations, 18 were implemented and 148 were under implementation.

The first coordination meeting of the Committee was held on 26 December 2018 where 7 decisions were made out of which one was implemented and 6 were still being implemented. The 166 recommendations and decisions made at the first coordination meeting were mostly interlinked and must be conducted in an increasing momentum. Remaining works were to be completed within the designated timeframe and responsible ministries and organizations were urged to coordinate and cooperate.

Some of the submissions made during the 3 month period by responsible ministries and organizations on 12 sector wise recommendations accepted by Myanmar were found to be too general and fragmented. Relevant committees were to assess and strive toward preparing a report that was complete, accurate, include what ought to be included and internationally acceptable. In order to do this related ministerial departments and organizations need to send information and data required by the responsible ministries and organizations.

Relevant ministerial departments and organizations were told to draw up a Time Frame for their work processes to implement the UPR recommendations. Furthermore a National Report on implementing UPR recommendations was to be submitted by July 2020. As such relevant ministerial departments and organizations were urged to cooperate and coordinate toward submitting a draft on 2019 December and a complete report on 2020 April. Therefore, for the relevant ministerial departments and organizations to complete according to Time Frame, draft reports were to be prepared and sent to Report Preparation Work Committee starting from August 2019. As the UPR process was an opportunity for Myanmar to let the world know about improvement in its human rights situation, great emphasis must be placed toward it. Furthermore this will also be an opportunity for Myanmar to show that it was striving from all sides toward improvement of human rights situation like other countries of the world and the falseness of the international accusations toward it. Therefore meeting attendees were to suggest programs ought to be conducted, work committee wise implementation status and difficulties faced said the Vice President.

Next the Committee secretary Maj-Gen Aung Thu explained about works implemented by responsible ministries and organizations of each sector of the 12 sectors set up to implement the 166 UPR recommendations during the four months period and future works that ought to be conducted. Afterwards Deputy Director General U Tin Maung Naing of Ministry of International Cooperation explained about 41 recommendations on acceding to International human rights treaties and 4 recommendations to cooperate with UN Human Rights Mechanisms, Myanmar National Human Rights Commission Chairman U Win Mra explained about 7 recommendations concerning its commission, Union Attorney-General U Tun Tun Oo explained about 19 recommendations on democracy, peace, rule of law and human rights reform matters, Ministry of Planning and Finance Director General Daw Thway Thway Chit explained about 12 recommendations on economic development, Ministry of Home Affairs Myanmar Police Force Deputy Police Chief Police Maj-Gen Myo Swe Win explained about 10 recommendations on implementing good governance system and land confiscation, Union Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Dr. Win Myat Aye explained about 15 recommendations on promoting gender equality and protection of vulnerable groups together with 15 recommendations on non-discrimination, Ministry of Education Department of Technical and Vocational Education and Training Director-General Dr. Aye Myint explained about 13 recommendations on health and education, Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture Permanent Secretary U Tun Ohn explained about 18 recommendations on interfaith, freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly, Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population Permanent Secretary U Aye Lwin explained about 7 recommendations on citizenship assessment, internally displaced persons and human trafficking and Ministry of the Office of the State Counsellor Director General U Zaw Htay explained about 5 recommendations on ceasefire and national reconciliation.

Later Union Minister for Home Affairs Lt-Gen Kyaw Swe, Myanmar National Human Rights Commission Chairman U Win Mra, Deputy Minister for Information U Aung Hla Tun, General Administration Department Deputy Director General Daw Swe Swe Naing and Union Attorney General Office Legal Advice Department Director General Daw Thida Oo discussed about implementing UPR recommendations, suggestion on department wise works related to National Report and matters ought to be included in it.

Committee Chairman Vice President U Myint Swe then gave advice and comments to ensure proper coordination base on explanations and submissions made. He then delivered a closing speech after which the meeting came to a close.— MNA
(Translated by Zaw Min)