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VII. Recommendations

To the Burmese government, the “State Development and Peace Council”:

  • Publicly and officially order the Tatmadaw and other state security agencies to end all human rights absuses and humanitarian law violations against civilians, including extrajudicial executions, torture, sexual violence, land confiscation, and forced labor.
  • Create a credible legal process to provide redress and to hold perpetrators, regardless of rank, accountable for human rights and humanitarian law violations. Make this process transparent so as to create public and international confidence that a new policy has been devised and is being implemented.
  • Invite the Special Rapporteur of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights on the situation of human rights and the U.N. Secretary-General's Representative on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons to visit Burma and provide unfettered access to areas of conflict and displacement, including Relocation Centers and Villages, to assess the situation on the ground and to make recommendations to assist IDPs.
  • Allow impartial international humanitarian agencies to provide assistance and protection to IDPs.
  • Recognize the legitimate and necessary role of independent NGOs and CBOs in providing assistance to IDPs, in receiving funds to provide such assistance, in working with local communities and individuals to ascertain their needs, and to advocate on behalf of IDPs.

To the KNU and KNLA:

  • Publicly and officially order the KNLA and any other armed groups operating in Karen State to end all human rights abuses and humanitarian law violations against civilians, including forced labor. Take appropriate action against persons responsible for human rights abuses and humanitarian law violations.

To the SPDC and KNU:

  • Publicly pledge to respect the U.N. Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.
  • Ensure that any ceasefire agreement includes specific commitments on human rights protections, including full access to local and international monitors, including from the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
  • Ensure that any ceasefire agreement includes provisions for regular meetings at the field-level that include Tatmadaw officers and government officials, KNLA officers and KNU officials, villagers’ representatives, and human rights monitors to monitor the situation on the ground and address the inevitable post-ceasefire rights violations.
  • Offer ordinary villagers a greater role in political negotiations and in identifying community needs and directing and delivering aid.

To the United Nations, international aid agencies, and other donors:

  • Work together to create a strategy to address the SPDC, KNU, and other armed groups and with civil society to provide greater human rights protection, to better monitor the human rights and humanitarian situation, to provide necessary humanitarian assistance, and to engage in joint advocacy efforts on behalf of IDPs.
  • Engage in policy discussions with local and national government, and ceasefire and non-ceasefire groups, regarding health, education, food, livelihoods, land and property rights, landmines, agriculture, HIV/AIDS, gender, children, and basic needs.
  • Ensure that the delivery of humanitarian assistance is carried out independently without unnecessary interference from government or military officials and opposition armed groups. Resist efforts by authorities to interfere with the impartial delivery of assistance or manipulate it for other purposes, such as to extend military control.
  • Provide assistance to develop civil society among a wide array of nongovernmental and community based organizations.
  • Ensure that international aid efforts also have a capacity building objective that attempts to identify and support local NGOs, CBOs, and individuals, especially among under-represented groups (such as non-Christians, minorities within States, women), to build their capacity to deliver assistance and to act as advocates for IDPs. For example:
    • Define a conscious goal of empowering local communities and civil society groups. Donors should reach out to and work with all communities, not just elites and narrow groups of “westernized” NGOs.
    • Work with CBOs and local NGOs to develop mechanisms for ensuring accountability to donors and beneficiaries, and to promote impartiality, inclusiveness and participation, protection, conflict resolution and gender awareness.
    • Avoid donor-driven initiatives by encouraging genuine partnership and joint ownership of projects with civil society actors.
    • Coordinate donor reporting and evaluation requirements.
    • Be flexible in relations with civil society groups, especially regarding monitoring in remote areas. If local NGOs demonstrate accountability, it is not always necessary for expatriate staff to visit all project sites.
    • Be prepared to respond to small-scale project proposals, in order to nurture the development of fledgling CBOs. Consider providing core funding to local NGOs.
    • Provide strategic planning and organizational development advice to local NGOs and CBOs.
    • Initiate regular international-local NGO forums at the State level.
  • Work with national and local government, including ceasefire and non-ceasefire groups, to build schools and train teachers, provide in-service training and teaching materials, promote local language enhancement policies, and provide non-formal, vocational and skills training and materials; to build clinics, train medics, and provide medicine; to establish micro-credit programs; to support natural resource management and environmental protection; and to work with community social and business leaders to develop sustainable commercial activities, such as community forestry and agriculture projects.
  • Donors should also work with non-ceasefire groups to provide humanitarian assistance to IDPs, as such groups often protect IDPs. Efforts should be made to create a dialogue to better map highly vulnerable IDP movements and to provide assistance. This should be done in the spirit of independent and impartial humanitarian assistance and the protection of civilians.
  • Provide high quality security and protection training to all field staff.
  • Incorporate “Peace and Conflict Impact Assessments” (PCIA) into the planning and evaluation phase of all projects. Needs and vulnerability assessments should mainstream protection issues.
  • Fund studies and surveys on health, education, food, livelihoods, land and property rights, landmines, agriculture, HIV/AIDS, gender, children, and other basic needs in conflict and ceasefire areas in order to draw lessons about how to operate in each area and to identify the benefits of ceasefires for IDPs and others. Develop participatory research programs to identify specific information gaps and humanitarian protection needs.
  • Identify affected communities’ local protection and self-help strategies and capacities and the impact of local and international assistance and protection interventions. Conduct research in partnership with and provide appropriate training to local populations, CBOs, and appropriate government officials, such as those working in health, education, or agriculture.
  • Ensure that advocacy recommendations and action plans are drafted in close consultation with affected communities, with special attention to the participation of women. Aim for concrete proposals regarding the types of changes required and how these might be implemented. Opposition and activist groups must demonstrate that their recommendations reflect the needs and aspirations of affected populations.

To the Government of the Royal Kingdom of Thailand:

  • Extend asylum to all those fleeing ongoing conflict and human rights abuses in Burma, protecting Burmese refugees from refoulement and allowing new asylum seekers access to Thai territory. Ensure that conditions for return to Burma in safety and dignity to be genuinely and durably established prior to commencing any organized return or repatriation from Thailand.
  • Give clear guarantees to humanitarian agencies that they may work without interference and without fear of closure by the Thai authorities if they advocate for either the rights of IDPs in Burma or asylum seekers and refugees in Thailand.


<<previous  |  index  |  next>>June 2005