Human rights abuses continue in Burma

Britain’s Human Rights and Democracy report for 2011 highlights ongoing human rights abuses in Burma, despite some welcome reforms, according to a statement by Burma Campaign UK (BCUK).  It said 2011 was marked by some unexpected and positive political developments in Burma, but, "The situation in some ethnic minority areas worsened.”

The report documented ongoing human rights abuses that "could be classified as possible war crimes and crimes against humanity,” said BCUK, including:

• “In March, the Burmese Army moved into areas of Shan State held by ethnic armed forces. We received reports that seven villages were razed to the ground, and civilians indiscriminately targeted. An estimated 30,000 people fled their homes.


• “In June, conflict broke out in Kachin State, bringing a 17-year ceasefire to an end. Human rights abuses targeting civilians were reported, including torture, rape and unverified reports of murder. There were allegations that the Kachin Independence Army was also using forced portering and child soldiers.


• "Rreports of gender-based violence by the military in conflict areas; the Burmese government has done little to investigate these cases.


• “The use of child soldiers in the Burmese military and some armed ethnic groups.”

Despite the possible abuses, the BCUK noted that  Burmese President Thein Sein has been invited to the UK.

In the past year, BCUK said the British government has tended to focus more on the positive developments in Burma, and talked less about human rights abuses. The government agreed to the suspension of European Union sanctions despite none of the benchmarks that were set being met, it said. These included the unconditional release of all political prisoners, the end of conflict in ethnic states, and allowing humanitarian assistance to be delivered freely in ethnic states.

It noted that the government has moved to normalize relations with Burma quicker than other countries, with the British Prime Minister visiting Burma, and the invitation to Burma’s president to the UK.

Burma Campaign UK said it welcomed the report for highlighting the fact that severe human rights abuses continue to take place, and for its acknowledgment that minority rights “remained perhaps Burma’s greatest challenge, requiring…constitutional amendments.”

It said most governments have tended to ignore or failed to understand the importance of an inclusive process of national reconciliation, despite Aung San Suu Kyi’s repeated statements.

“The international community, including the British government, has been too quick to move towards normalizing relations with Burma, despite very serious human rights abuses continuing,” said Zoya Phan, BCUK campaigns manager.

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Refugee Rights

Ethics, Advocacy, and Africa

David Hollenbach, SJ, Editor

Of the over 33 million refugees and internally displaced people in the world today, a disproportionate percentage are found in Africa. Most have been driven from their homes by armed strife, displacing people into settings that fail to meet standards for even basic human dignity. Protection of the human rights of these people is highly uncertain and unpredictable. Many refugee service agencies agree advocacy on behalf of the displaced is a key aspect of their task. But those working in the field are so pressed by urgent crises that they can rarely analyze the requirements of advocacy systematically. Yet advocacy must go beyond international law to human rights as an ethical standard to prevent displaced people from falling through the cracks of our conflicted world.

Refugee Rights: Ethics, Advocacy, and Africa draws upon David Hollenbach, SJ's work as founder and director of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Boston College to provide an analytical framework for vigorous advocacy on behalf of refugees and internally displaced people. Representing both religious and secular perspectives, the contributors are scholars, practitioners, and refugee advocates—all of whom have spent time "on the ground" in Africa. The book begins with the poignant narrative of Abebe Feyissa, an Ethiopian refugee who has spent over fifteen years in a refugee camp from hell. Other chapters identify the social and political conditions integral to the plight of refugees and displaced persons. Topics discussed include the fundamental right to freedom of movement, gender roles and the rights of women, the effects of war, and the importance of reconstruction and reintegration following armed conflict. The book concludes with suggestions of how humanitarian groups and international organizations can help mitigate the problem of forced displacement and enforce the belief that all displaced people have the right to be treated as their human dignity demands.

Refugee Rights offers an important analytical resource for advocates and students of human rights. It will be of particular value to practitioners working in the field.

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David Hollenbach, SJ, is director of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice and holds the Human Rights and International Justice University Chair at Boston College. He is the author of The Global Face of Public Faith: Politics, Human Rights, and Christian Ethics.

Theology and the Boundary Discourse of Human Rights

Ethna Regan

What are human rights? Can theology acknowledge human rights discourse? Is theological engagement with human rights justified? What place should this discourse occupy within ethics?

Ethna Regan seeks to answer these questions about human rights, Christian theology, and philosophical ethics. The main purpose of this book is to justify and explore theological engagement with human rights. Regan illustrates how that engagement is both ecumenical and diverse, citing the emerging engagement with human rights discourse by evangelical theologians in response to the War on Terror. The book examines where the themes and concerns of key modern theologians—Karl Rahner, J. B. Metz, Jon Sobrino, and Ignacio Ellacuría—converge with the themes and concerns of those committed to the advancement of human rights. Regan also critically engages with the "disdain" for rights discourse that is found in the postliberal critiques of John Milbank and Stanley Hauerwas.

This interdisciplinary volume will be of interest to students and scholars in the fields of systematic theology, theological ethics, human rights, religion and politics, and political theory.

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Ethna Regan is a lecturer in theology at the Mater Dei Institute of Education, Dublin City University in Ireland.

Theology and human rights

I. The Theological Basis of Human Rights

We appreciate the "Theological Basis of Human Rights" of WARC as the first step on the way toward an ecumenical "Christian Declaration on Human Rights". We therefore recommend that the executive committee should take initiative to enter into dialogue with Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Orthodox and CCIA-study groups in order to develop the "Theological Basis". The discussion with other theological traditions such as the tradition of "natural law", of the "two Kingdoms" etc. would broaden and deepen our theological approach. Such a study should also seek to listen to the questions posed to the Christian faith by secular concerns for human rights, and ask what do they say to our understanding of God and of man. It would furthermore serve to find common theological grounds for the public, the social and political responsibility of Christians and churches in the area of human rights and the humanity of human beings.

II. The Role of Member churches in the Struggle for the Recognition and Realization of Human Rights.

Further studies should be made on how the churches and Christian communities

• can serve in particular dehumanized people in society ( discriminated, marginalized, oppressed, handicapped and under-represented people)
• can protest prophetically against inhuman acts, structures and power in society
• can pray for the victims of human rights violations and speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves
• can participate, where possible, in the constitutional process of translating human rights into civil rights and positive laws
• can cooperate with secular human rights movements, with Amnesty International and with human rights' concerns of people of other faiths.

An educational programme for the promotion of human rights by congregations should be drawn up, in cooperation with other church bodies if possible.

III. The Role of the State and Government in the Struggle for Human Rights.

As the reality of the human rights problem is that of the way in which governments and states give particular expression in legislation and in practice to human rights articles, this area presents itself as one demanding study and action. Various questions seem to demand clarification:

• how can human rights be translated into civil rights and liberties?
• the ideology of national security - civil rights and martial law - relation of national security and supranational interests - the question of whether there are certain human rights which may never be suspended under any circumstances
• the relation between national law and international law - the participation of the state in the securing of fundamental human rights for humankind
• the state and its education programmes for civil liberties.

IV. WARC and the Implementation of Human Rights.

We would suggest an information and communication centre whereby member churches of WARC might offer for the intercession and action of the other member churches, cases of severe violation of human rights, especially the names and situations of our imprisoned sisters and brothers.

V. Specific Situations

I. South Africa

We ask the executive committee to

1. write to South African member churches, pledging solidarity on human rights issues.
2. write to the Government urging the implementation of Article 9 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights (ie no one to be subjected to detention without trial), and protesting against the high rate of death of those in detention.
3. to call upon the member churches to urge their governments to join the general boycott of South Africa on levels of arms trade, economic and financial support.

2. South Korea

We ask the executive committee to express disapproval to the South Korean government in whatever way possible because of the violation of the human freedom of opinion, dissent and expression and to call for the release of political prisoners.

3. Helsinki agreement (1975)

We ask the executive committee publicly to appreciate the agreement of the Helsinki Conference (CSCE) in 1975 and to bring to the attention of the Belgrade Conference the importance of human rights, individual and social, including the right of religious freedom.

4. Right to Employment

We ask the executive committee of WARC to request all member churches to work in their nations to the end that the Right to Employment (Universal Declaration, Article 23; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Article 7) be recognized as a human right, and be incorporated into the constitutions and that the governments make the realization of this right into a goal of their social politics.
Reasons

1. The recognition of the one, indivisible dignity of human beings as being in the image of God demands that human rights be considered as an indivisible unity.
2. Consequently a basic right to employment must correspond to the basic right to "free development of personality". Without the social possibility of employment, the freedom of a person cannot be realized.
3. The basic right to employment must at least receive equal ranking with the right to property because otherwise social justice (in conflict between capital and labour) cannot be desired or reached.
4. In the light of the threat of massive unemployment - also in the industrial nations - the time has come to make full employment a goal of national and international social politics through the recognition of the human and civil right to employment.