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ALRC-PL-007-2006

BURMA: ALRC seeks involvement of UN expert on judges

(Hong Kong, September 8, 2006) The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) on Friday called for a United Nations expert on judges to seek information from the government of Burma on the functioning of courts and disciplining of magistrates in that country.

In a 6-page letter submitted jointly to the special rapporteurs on the independence of judges and lawyers and on human rights in Burma, the Hong Kong-based regional group requested that the UN rights investigators pay more attention to what it described as the country's "injustice system".

"It is easy to sum-up the judiciary in Myanmar by saying that it is not independent; it is under state control [but] this is not enough," Basil Fernando, executive director of the ALRC, said, referring to the country by its official title.

"Despite the decrepit condition of the courts in Myanmar, there are still victims and lawyers arguing human rights cases before them; there are still persons with some hope of a favourable decision in such cases," Fernando said. 

"These demand our attention and scrutiny," he added.

The ALRC cited two recent cases which it said spoke to the "farcical" condition of courts in Burma.

In July, a 21-year old man in Bogalay, Nyi Nyi Htut, was sentenced to three years' jail after a hearing and by a judge without the requisite legal authority.

In August, 65-year-old U Tin Kyi of Kyaung Gone was jailed for four months after allegedly threatening government authorities, despite there being no evidence against him. The trial procedures and judgement were completed in a single day.

"We have it on good authority from experienced Myanmar lawyers that it is simply not done for a court to complete hearings, pass judgment and complete paperwork all within one day," Fernando told the UN experts.

"The only inference that can be drawn from this is that the judgment was prepared before the hearing," he said.

The ALRC said that the case recalled the earlier jailing of farmer U Tin Nyein for complaining about destruction of his crops by government agents, and U Aye Min and U Win Nyunt for alleging corruption among local officials, also in Bogalay.

In July the group submitted a letter to the expert on Burma, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, requesting that he pay more attention to the day-to-day problems of justice and law-enforcement institutions in Burma.

It is the first time that it has written to the rapporteur on judges and lawyers, Leandro Despouy, a prominent rights defender from Argentina.

Pinheiro took up the post of special rapporteur on Burma in 2000, but there has been no significant change in human rights conditions in the country since that time.

He is the third person to hold the mandate since it was established in 1992.

Despouy took over the 13-year-old position on judges and lawyers from Malaysian expert Param Cumaraswamy in 2003.

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About ALRC: The Asian Legal Resource Centre is an independent regional non-governmental organisation holding general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. It is the sister organisation of the Asian Human Rights Commission. The Hong Kong-based group seeks to strengthen and encourage positive action on legal and human rights issues at local and national levels throughout Asia.