Burma: Children’s Rights and the Rule of Law

This report examines the context within which children and their parents must struggle to exercise their rights and looks in detail at the legal provisions which deny them even the most basic rights and freedoms. It also reports on the current situation of children in Burma and the daily practices used by the military and other government agents which violate  international  law.   These  include abuses of international humanitarian  law in ethnic minority areas, including the use of children as porters for the army and the forcible relocation of tens of thousands of civilians; the recruitment of children under the age of sixteen into the armed forces, often forcibly; arbitrary arrest and detention, often without charge or trial; the routine use of children as unpaid laborers on government construction projects; the arrest of high school students for writing or distributing leaflets, or for simply calling out slogans, under censorship laws which also severely limit the publication of children's books and magazines; and the use of forced labor.  The report concludes that the government has shown little political will to implement the terms of the CRC, suggesting that its accession was not so much an indication of its desire to desire to protect the rights of children as an empty gesture designed to improve its image abroad. Nevertheless, Human Rights Watch welcomes the efforts of the Committee on the Rights of the Child to engage the government in constructive dialogue regarding implementation and urges the international community to support the committee's work.