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Madame Chair,
Anti-Slavery International would like to call the attention of
the Commission to the situation of children in Burma.
In 1991, Burma acceded to the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, but, today, children continue to be denied their most
basic rights and freedoms, and to be subjected to the most serious
human rights violations.
Children are often requisitioned as forced labourers for road building,
army camp maintenance, plantation work and as porters. Despite Order
1/99 prohibiting forced labour, this practice continues as reported
by the ILO Liaison Office in its March 2003 report to the Governing
Body [ref. GB-286/6]. Children, both girls and boys, have to perform
compulsory labour to allow their parents to earn the daily income
of the family.
Children as young as 11 are forcibly recruited as soldiers in the
Army. A Human Rights Watch report of October 2002 estimates that
as many as 70,000 children are being conscripted into the armed
forces. They are subject to beatings and humiliation during training
and, once deployed, they must engage in combat, participate in human
rights violations against civilians, and are frequently abused by
their commanders.
In Shan, Karen and Karenni States, the military regime has conducted
campaigns of mass relocation of villages. These have particularly
affected children. Displaced families were forced to move to relocation
camps or went into hiding in the forest. Their education has been
severely disrupted, malnutrition has become rampant and health care
is totally inadequate. Many girls and women became victims of rape
by soldiers [as documented in the report "Licence to Rape"].
Children from the Rohingya Muslim community in Northern
Arakan State are denied the right of citizenship. According to the
Citizenship Law of 1982, they are stateless at birth. Their movement
is so restrictive that they must obtain a travel pass even to reach
a neighbouring village.
Madame Chair,
Human rights abuses, displacement, malnutrition, lack of education
and health care seriously hamper the mental and physical development
of children in Burma. We would therefore urge the Commission to
put pressure on the Government of Burma to fulfil its obligations
under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Thank you.
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