UN sounds alarm at Myanmar move
A group of United Nations human rights experts yesterday expressed alarm at the enactment of the Population Control Healthcare Bill in Myanmar, the first of four in a package of bills that seek to 'protect race and religion'.
The experts said the bills are highly discriminatory against ethnic and religious minorities as well as against women.
“These bills risk deepening discrimination against minorities and setting back women's rights in Myanmar,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee. “At a time when thousands of Rohingya are already fleeing the country by boat, this sends precisely the wrong signal to these communities.”
On Saturday, State media reported that the president of Myanmar had signed the Population Control Healthcare Bill. While the stated objectives of the Bill are to improve living standards, alleviate poverty, ensure quality healthcare and develop maternal and child health, its provisions are extremely vague and lack any protection against discrimination, the independent experts noted. Under the newly adopted law, certain areas can be designated for special health care measures, including birth spacing.
“Any coercive requirement for birth spacing with the aim to 'organise' family planning would constitute a disproportionate interference in the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and could amount to a violation of women's human rights,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Dainius Pûras, noting that the Bill allows township groups to 'organise' married couples to practice 36-month birth spacing between pregnancies.
“Evidence shows that attempts to impose strategies aimed at 'controlling population growth' often disproportionately target marginalized and minority groups and can have discriminatory, coercive and punitive effects that go against basic rights and freedoms, particularly those of women,” the experts added.
The rights experts also expressed serious concern about the other three bills currently being considered by parliament: the Religious Conversion Bill, the Myanmar Buddhist Women's Special Marriage Bill and the Monogamy Bill.
The Religious Conversion Bill establishes a state-regulated system for religious conversion. “The right to conversion has the status of unconditional protection under international human rights law,” the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Heiner Bielefeldt, said.
The Myanmar Buddhist Women's Special Marriage Bill seeks to protect Buddhist women marrying non-Buddhist men. In practice, the bill discourages interfaith marriages between Buddhist women and men of other faiths by imposing disproportionate penalties on non-Buddhist men.
The Monogamy Bill criminalises polygamy and prohibits extramarital affairs.
The independent experts called on the Government of Myanmar to discard all four laws, which will violate Myanmar's obligations under international human rights standards.
The Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Rita Izsák, cautioned that “these bills particularly discriminate against ethnic and religious minorities and have the potential to fuel existing tensions in the country.”
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