Myanmar: Human Rights Press Conference - UN Special Rapporteur | United Nations

Описание: Briefing by Tom Andrews, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, following the presentation of his report to the General Assembly's Third Committee.
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UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said that the humanitarian conditions in the country are “significantly worse” in 2025. “Nearly 22 million people in Myanmar now require humanitarian aid. 16.7 million people face acute food insecurity,” he said.

Special Rapporteurs and other human rights experts appointed under the special procedures mandate of the Human Rights Council are not UN staff and are independent of any government or organization. They receive no salary for their work.

Andrews spoke to reporters today (29 Oct) following the presentation of his report to the General Assembly’s Third Committee yesterday.

The Special Rapporteur highlighted that the humanitarian situation was made “much worse” after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck central Myanmar on 28th of March.

He said, “The earthquake impacted an estimated 17 million people, damaged 157,000 buildings, left about 200,000 people homeless. The world Bank has estimated that it caused $11 billion in damage.”

Andrews also said, “The military junta of Myanmar took that natural disaster and turned it into a humanitarian catastrophe.”

The Special Rapporteur explained that “they did so by trying to turn this disaster to its own advantage. It blocked systematically the delivery of humanitarian aid from reaching many devastated areas in Myanmar. It employed tactics such as threatening, harassing, interrogating, extorting humanitarian aid workers. It confiscated, medical supplies. Its soldiers looted the homes of those who were displaced by the earthquake. They rounded up a young people involved in relief efforts, forcibly, conscripting them into the military to become human shields, while otherwise using them as forced labor.”

“Young people, are drawn into the promise of good jobs find themselves trafficked into scam centres, imprisoned and forced to scam people literally out of billions of dollars all over the world. So this is a crisis that is not only impacting the people of Myanmar. It is indeed impacting the people around the world,” Andrews added.

He implored the members of the United Nations to “step up and take action that it is simply fail to do.”

The Special Rapporteur added, “We have seen in the midst of this spike in the need pursuit of incredible needs for humanitarian aid, we have seen a systematic decrease in the availability of humanitarian aid.”

On the upcoming elections in the country that is scheduled on 28 December, Andrews said, “These elections are a sham. They're a fraud. You cannot have a free and fair election when you arrest, detain, imprison and torture the leaders of the political opposition.”