Horror in Myanmar: Daily Brief

Shocking footage has recently emerged on social media of brutal killings allegedly in Myanmar’s Sagaing Region where a United Nations investigator has documented apparent war crimes by the Myanmar military. The footage, recovered from a cell phone belonging to a Myanmar soldier and verified by media outlet Radio Free Asia (RFA), but not independently verified by Human Rights Watch, shows about 30 men captured after a Myanmar military raid in Mon Taing Pin village, Ayadaw township, on May 10, 2022. At least five of them later appear dead, their hands bound, shot from behind. RFA reported that a villager had found the phone after it had been dropped. In the footage, three soldiers discuss in Burmese the number of people they have killed. A sergeant, identified by the insignia on his uniform, brags about shooting and killing 26 people. Another soldier says he killed five people by slitting their throats. Concerned governments should persistently press the UN Security Council to impose an arms embargo and refer the country situation to the International Criminal Court.

In a significant setback for climate action, the United States Supreme Court has ruled to limit the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ability to restrict greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The ruling prevents the EPA from using its authority under the Clean Air Act of 1970 to set requirements that shift the country’s energy production from higher-emitting sources of greenhouse gas, like coal, to lower-emitting sources, including wind and solar. Electricity production is responsible for a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions in the US, making it a significant contributor to climate change. The opinion comes just weeks after millions in the US were exposed to record high temperatures, wildfires, and flooding, which will occur more frequently as the climate crisis worsens. The US is currently the second-largest global greenhouse gas emitter, but is, historically, the largest contributor to the climate crisis, which is particularly impacting those with low incomes as well as Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, exacerbating existing structural inequities.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni should accelerate steps toward fulfilling his commitments to end abuses by security forces and restrictions on civil society and journalists in Uganda, HRW said following its meeting with him last week. The authorities in Uganda should hold to account high-level officials responsible for human rights violations and create and respect space for civil society and journalists to operate without interference by the authorities. “President Museveni’s pledges to improve Uganda’s increasingly repressive human rights record is a positive step,” says Kenneth Roth, HRW's executive director. “But they are meaningless as only rhetoric, and he needs to initiate concrete measures to ensure that Ugandan authorities and policies respect and comply with human rights standards.”

In a serious setback for media freedom, the Maldives parliament has enacted legislation allowing courts to force journalists and media outlets to reveal their sources. While reiterating constitutional provisions guaranteeing freedom of the press, the new Evidence Act includes an exception that undermines those protections: judges can compel the disclosure of a source’s identity “if the court decides that there is no negative impact or not a significantly negative impact on the source if it were to be revealed,” or “if the impact of revealing a source does not significantly impact the ability of journalists to find sources.” Human rights groups in the Maldives have criticized the bill: “The vagueness of the criteria set out in the exceptions … will lead to a significant reversal of press freedom,” and “will have a dramatic impact on the work of journalists, including losing access to important sources, who might refuse to talk to journalists due to fear of being exposed in a court of law.”

   

Did you know that the authorities in Lebanon have unlawfully banned peaceful gatherings of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people? The ban violates LGBTI people’s constitutional rights to equality, free expression, and free assembly and Lebanon’s obligations under international law and comes during an economic crisis and a worsening climate for the rights of LGBTI people in the country. On June 24, Interior Minister Bassam al-Mawlawi sent a letter to the directorates of Internal Security and General Security instructing them to ban any gatherings aimed at, “promoting sexual perversion.” The letter includes vague and overly broad grounds, citing no legal basis, to determine that such gatherings violate “customs and traditions” and “principles of religion.” The interior minister said this decision was in response to calls to his ministry from religious groups to “reject the spread of this phenomenon.” The letter is understood to refer to gatherings by LGBTI groups, citing a message circulated on social media that detailed plans for activities organized by LGBTI activists.

And the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights’ latest report on Venezuela has called for an “independent, impartial, prompt, thorough, effective, credible and transparent investigation” into a deadly incident in March, involving the Bolivarian National Armed Forces. Four Yanomami Indigenous people were killed after a disagreement broke out over internet access. Venezuela has repeatedly failed to protect the Yanomami from violence, forced labor, and sexual exploitation by illegal miners. HRW has documented horrific abuses – amputations, shootings, killings – by groups controlling illegal gold mines in the area. In southern Venezuela, in the Orinoco and Amazon jungles, illegal mining has led to deforestation and polluted waters, and displaced Indigenous communities. Venezuela lacks judicial independence, and impunity for human rights violations is common.