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Myanmar: New UN envoy meets with Commission

Graphic: National Human Rights Commission of Myanmar

The United Nations new human rights envoy to Myanmar meets with the National Human Rights Commission on her first official visit to the country.


The United Nations new human rights envoy to Myanmar began her first official visit to the country with an inspection of Yangon's Insein Prison and talks with the National Human Rights Commission.

Yanghee Lee of South Korea, who took over as the new U.N. Special Rapporteur on Myanmar in June, is on a ten-day mission that will include visits to Rakhine and Kachin states.

Ms Lee met with U Win Mra, Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission of Myanmar, to discuss the work of the rights body since it was established in September 2011.

"This is her first time in Myanmar, so we explained what the Commission has done on human rights issues in the country," U Win Mra told RFA's Myanmar Service.

"We also told her about the areas we have visited to report on human rights issues, such as humanitarian assistance, people displaced by conflict, education, land mines, soldier recruiting for both [the government and ethnic rebel armies] and child soldiers in Kachin state."

U Win Mra said he also explained the reports the Commission had released concerning a crackdown by authorities on a protest against a Chinese-owned copper mine, as well as on violence in western Myanmar's Rakhine state, which has left hundreds dead and tens of thousands displaced since 2012.

He said the Commission had received around 6,000 letters from the public to investigate human rights complaints.

Date: 17 July 2014

Source: Radio Free Asia