ORAL
STATEMENT BY THE WORLD ORGANISATION AGAINST TORTURE
INTERNATIONAL
LABOUR CONFERENCE, 93rd SESSION
COMMITTEE
ON THE APPLICATION OF STANDARDS
SITTING
ON FORCED LABOUR IN BURMA/MYANMAR (CONVENTION 29)
Mr. Chairman,
The World
Organisation against Torture, also known as the OMCT, coordinates a network of
about 280 non-governmental organisations with as primary goal preventing the
use of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
OMCT is alarmed
by the continued use of forced labour in Burma/Myanmar, often associated with
torture and other types of physical and psychological abuse. We are highly
concerned about the situation of the hundreds of thousands of people in
Burma/Myanmar who are subjected to forced labour and other human rights abuses
or live under the constant threat of being subjected to it in the near future.
Since 1964 the
Committee of Experts has expressed its concern at the use of forced labour in
Forced labour is always cruel, inhuman and degrading and it may be considered as an act
of torture per se. In Burma/Myanmar it is often accompanied by other forms of
torture, including enforced displacement, rape, as well as food and health care
deprivation or other ill-treatment resulting in death, and where resistance to
forced labour is met, with further ill-treatment, detentions and extra-judicial
executions. Furthermore, it frequently entails
sexual exploitation, child labour, human minesweeping, the extortion and forced
eviction of civilians, and extremely harsh labour conditions.
Recent reports[1]
from the field include denunciations of government officers who forced civilians
to stand sentry at risk of their lives[2],
and a military commander who beat a civilian to death in
Torture in Burma/Myanmar is by
no means restricted to its direct association with forced labour and is often
exerted upon pro-democracy activists, monks, or women in the form of sexual
abuse.
OMCT considers
that both torture and forced labour, as they deny the fundamental respect of
human dignity, are not only closely intertwined, but have in common an absolute
rejection of the most fundamental human rights.
OMCT urges that all necessary
measures be taken in order to ensure the compliance by Burma/Myanmar with the
absolute interdiction of forced labour and other human rights abuses associated
with it. Our organisation hopes that in this session of the International
Labour Conference concrete and energetic measures will be taken in order to
ensure the full implementation of Convention 29 and of the provisions of the
June 2000 Resolution.
Thank you Mr.
Chairman.
[1] See http://www.burmalibrary.org/
[2] See May 2005 report from the field
by the Karen Human Rights Group, http://www.khrg.org/
[3] According to reports by the Shan
Human Rights Foundation, cited in the US State Department 2004 Report on
[4] See Forum-Asia report dated
[5] See Forced Labour in