Chairperson,
I have the honour to speak for the European Union and its member states. As Austria, currently exercising the EU presidency is not a member of the Governing Body, I do so on behalf of the Presidency.
The Acceding Countries Bulgaria and Romania, the Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, and the EFTA country Norway, member of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova and Switzerland align themselves with this declaration.
1. At the last session of the Governing Body in November 2005 the EU felt obliged to express once more its serious concerns about the human rights situation in Burma/Myanmar and in particular the persistent maintenance of an institutionalized system of forced labour which is in flagrant violation of Convention No. 29 which the Burmese Government ratified in 1955, 51 years ago.
2. The EU therefore asked the Office to prepare updated documentation for a comprehensive discussion of the issue at this session of the Governing Body, so as to enable us to take a decision whether to put the question of forced labour in Burma/Myanmar as a specific item on the agenda of the forthcoming International Labour Conference. The EU thanks the Office for document GB.295/7 which is a useful update to the Governing Body. The EU believes that it should be read in conjunction with the relevant sections of the last report of the Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Commission, and in particular his conclusion that “no transition process is worthy of the name as long as fundamental freedoms of assembly, expression and association are denied; voices advocating democratic reform are silenced, elected representatives are imprisoned und human rights defenders are criminalized”.
3. Firstly, we would like to express our great appreciation for Mr. Horsey, the ILO-Liaison Officer a.i., for the dedicated fulfilment of his duties in an extremely difficult environment. While the EU notes that the orchestrated campaign of death threats against him has ceased and that he has been in a position to resume some of his activities, this is unfortunately only a modest step back in the right direction. Furthermore, it is apparently the only such positive move since the Governing Body’s previous consideration of this issue. In this context, the EU urges the Government to renew the visa of Mr. Léon de Riedmatten, Informal Facilitator for the ILO as well as Yangon representative of the “Henry Dunant Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue”.
4. The EU is also deeply concerned that the Burmese/Myanmar authorities have not permitted the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit prisons and detention camps, since the end of 2005, and that other international organisations and UN agencies, including the ILO, are facing an uncertain future following the presentation in February of new government guidelines which could jeopardise humanitarian assistance delivery in accordance with internationally accepted principles.
5. Turning to the specific issue of forced labour and the observance by the Government of Burma/Myanmar of Convention No. 29, the EU notes with the greatest concern the statement in the Special Rapporteur’s report that he continued to receive information of widespread and systematic forced labour practices, including allegations of child labour, and forced recruitment, implemented by state actors, throughout Myanmar. This has also been confirmed by the Liaison Officer a.i. in his contribution to document GB. 295/7 where he also referred to the deplorable fact that individuals who had lodged complaints of forced labour have subsequently been prosecuted and continue to be so as their appeals to the higher judiciary instances are, as it appears, systematically rejected. In view of this, the EU finds unacceptable and totally lacking in credibility the reply of the Deputy Labour Minister to the demarche undertaken by the Liaison Officer a.i. in favour of specific cases as described in para.12 of the report, viz that ‘these three prosecutions were not a consequence of contacts with the ILO’.
6. Like the Special Rapporteur the EU considers it particularly disturbing and saddening that the citizens of Burma/Myanmar, rather than pursuing their own livelihoods, are obliged by the Government, under the pretext of a so-called “civic duty”, to dedicate themselves without pay to such exploitative activities such as the construction of military camps, bunkers, roads and portering of all sorts of military supplies. In short, it is clear that violations of Convention 29 continue in Burma/Myanmar.
7. When considering the case of Burma/Myanmar in November 2005, the Governing Body requested the government at its various levels, including the senior leadership, to take advantage of the time available until now to resume an effective dialogue with the Office addressing all of the outstanding issues. It is therefore the task of this Governing Body to scrutinize today whether the Myanmar government has used this window of opportunity.
8. The EU welcomes the fact that the Office, as evidenced in detail in its report, has spared no efforts to reactivate the dialogue with the competent Myanmar authorities. This includes the mission to Yangon undertaken by the DG’s Special Adviser on 12-13 March which explored various options for a mutually acceptable workable mechanism to address complaints, even on an experimental basis, and rightly insisting on certain indispensable elements. While the EU recognizes that the Burmese authorities showed some willingness to engage themselves in a dialogue, we are very disappointed that they were unwilling to respond positively to any of the proposals put forward by the ILO. This includes the innovative Joint Panel mechanism, which could have helped to ensure a transparent and credible way of handling complaints and that protected Myanmar’s sovereignty.
9. The EU has therefore reached the conclusion that assurances made by the Myanmar Ambassador at each session of the Governing Body and the Conference that his authorities are willing to eradicate forced labour and to cooperate sincerely with the ILO are not genuine. The EU unequivocally condemns this continuous flagrant discrepancy between deeds and words and believes that the Government of Burma/Myanmar has now demonstrated quite clearly that it is unwilling to cooperate with the ILO, or engage in any meaningful dialogue.
Chairperson,
10. As a result, the EU regretfully considers that the attitude and behaviour of the Burmese/Myanmar authorities is incompatible both with the Convention to which it is signatory, the 1998 ILO Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and, as a consequence, with ILO membership itself. The EU believes that the time has come for the Governing Body to recognise this; and will support a/the proposal to put “Burma/Myanmar” as an additional and separate item on the agenda of the forthcoming ILC, which might, pending the absence of positive developments, lead the Conference to reach the same conclusion in a Resolution.
11. The EU would expect the Conference to revisit the resolution adopted in 2000 under Article 33 of the Constitution by reviewing the developments since its adoption and drawing the appropriate conclusions. We would further expect the Conference to examine proposals based on documentation prepared by the Office on how the measures could be made more effective.
We would therefore request the Office to prepare comprehensive documentation and legal information for this exercise. This should include information on any possible additional legal options.
12. In the meantime, we would like to call upon all the constituents of ILO and all relevant International Organisations to reconsider their relations with Burma/Myanmar in line with the measures adopted by the ILC in its 2000 Resolution.
13. In conclusion, we strongly support the message contained in the concluding paragraph 25 of document GB. 295/7. The EU urges the Burmese/Myanmar authorities to reconsider its negative attitude and to take advantage of the time remaining until the ILC to respond constructively and positively to the proposals put forward by the Office, as well as bringing to an immediate end the three cases where the authorities have taken action against human rights defenders who have made complaints about forced labour.
Thank you, Chairperson.
* Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.
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