Human Rights Now released the following statement on the Advisory Opinion of the Judges of the International Tribunal on Crimes against Women in Burma on June 27, 2010.
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International Tribunal on Crimes against Women in Burma calls for the establishment of a UN Commission of Inquiry
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On June 27,
Human Rights Now (HRN), a Tokyo-based international human rights NGO, together
with the Women’s League of Burma, an association that has worked for the
democratisation and realisation of human rights for women in Burma, co-hosted
the International Tribunal on Crimes against Women in Burma. The Tribunal considered
whether the military regime should be held responsible for human rights violations
against women in Burma. The first Tribunal of this kind was held in New York
this March by the Noble Women’s Initiative, a group of six female Noble Peace
Laureates. The Tribunal held in Tokyo on June 27 is the second such event in
the world, and the first in Asia. The Tribunal investigated whether or not the
human rights violations such as murder, rape, forced labour and torture committed
against women throughout Burma by the military regime amount to ‘crimes against
humanity’. The Tribunal based its judgment on testimonies from the victims of
such violations who had travelled to Japan for the Tribunal, and on documents
submitted to the Tribunal.
The judges of the Tribunal
concluded that ‘it is highly probable that the human rights violations suffered
by the women of Burma rise to the level of crimes against humanity’ and issued
an Advisory Opinion, calling for the active cooperation of the international
community.
It is
noteworthy that the Judges recognised the human rights violations and the
impunity enjoyed by perpetrators of the crimes in Burma as a situation which
‘has gone far beyond the stage where simply depending on the Burmese government
to take its own independent measures to address these violations can be
justified’ and called for the international community to ‘affirm that the
situations demands the formation and deployment of a Commission of Inquiry
under the authority of the U.N. Secretary-General or the U.N. Human Rights
Council, and the dispatch of the Commission to Burma’ ‘[b]ecause it is strongly
suspected that the human rights violations against the women of Burma described
to this Tribunal constitute crimes against humanity’. Furthermore, the Judges called for the international community to ‘demand, as a next step, that
the U.N. Security Council consider discussing crimes against humanity in Burma
and passing a resolution referring the situation to the Prosecutor of the
International Criminal Court’, if the activities of the Commission of Inquiry
fail to improve the situation.
In Burma, the military regime,
which has been in power for more than 20 years, has carried out grave human
rights violations such as forced labour, rape, murder and torture in a systematic
and widespread manner. Many people, especially women, became the victims of such violations, and those responsible for
the violations continue to enjoy a state of impunity. Over the past two
decades, the military regime has failed to follow U.N. General Assembly
resolutions and recommendations to improve the human rights situations issued
almost every year by the U.N. Special Rapporteur and other U.N. bodies. Given
such a situation in Burma, it is of extreme importance to dispatch the
Commission of Inquiry and, if necessary, refer the situation to the
International Criminal Court (ICC).
HRN affirms that the
decision of the Judges is crucially important to put an end to the impunity that
the military regime enjoys regarding the systematic and widespread human rights
violations which have continued over the past two decades, and to restore
justice and human rights, and welcomes the decision.
Furthermore, HRN strongly
requests that the international community make an effort to consider and realize
the dispatch of the Commission of Inquiry, as was recommended in the Advisory
Opinion.
Mr. Quintana, the Special
Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar (Burma), in his report
submitted in March,[1] indicated
that there was a possibility that human rights violations which constitute war
crimes and crimes against humanity may have been committed, and recommended
that the U.N. consider establishing a Commission of Inquiry to investigate
international crimes, given the the Burmese government’s lack of
accountability. Australia, the U.K. the Czech Republic, and Slovakia officially
supported the formation of the Commission.[2]
In the U.K., 176 MPs have signed a Parliamentary motion to support the
establishment of a Commission of Inquiry.[3]
Commissions of Inquiry were
dispatched to East Timor and Nepal in the Asian region during the peak of grave
human rights violations. Both countries accepted the findings and recommendations of the Commissions
after they had been dispatched, and both countries made contributions
to improving the human rights situations in their countries.
The international community
should urgently address the situation in Burma with a view to improving the
extremely grave human rights situation there. If the situation remains of an extremely grave nature even after the Commission’s involvement, a
referral to the ICC, a permanent court to judge the most serious international
crimes, is the last resort to end impunity and realise justice. The U.N. Security Council should adopt a resolution to refer the
situation to the ICC so that the ICC may
exercise its jurisdiction over Burma, which is not a State Party to the ICC.
The U.N. dispatched a Commission of Inquiry to the Darfur region in Sudan which
is also a non-State Party to the ICC, after reports detailing grave human
rights violations in the region were submitted to the U.N. In response to the recommendations of the
commission, the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution to refer the
situation to the ICC and the ICC has begun to investigate it. If Burma fails on
its own to end the current era of impunity, a similar referral to the ICC
should be made. HRN requests the U.N. and the
international community to establish a Commission of Inquiry and to give
serious consideration to the Advisory Opinion of the International Tribunal on
Crimes against Women of Burma as a the first step ending the impunity,.
The U.N. General Assembly, which
will be held this autumn, and the U.N. Human Rights Council should give this
matter serious consideration act accordingly.
HRN also requests that the Japanese government, as
the governing authority of the place the Tribunal was held, support any
initiative to establish a Commission of Inquiry.