XUNICEF News and Views

A year ago June Kunugi, UNICEF's RD in EAPRO visited a community near Yangon to see a community who are taking action for their disabled children.  UNICEF has provided some aid for the project.   Read June's entry from her field diary and posted in UNICEF's EAP Blog , "A ray of sunshine for families in crisis in Myanmar ".  The article below is based on June's original, so be sure to click the link above for the original.

"The humanitarian crisis in Myanmar is reaching a critical inflexion point, with escalating conflict and climate shocks putting children and families at unprecedented risk. Over 3.4 million people have been displaced across the country, nearly 40 per cent of whom are children.

While the world's attention is focused on other humanitarian crises, sad to see military-ruled Myanmar spiraling downwards in all economic & social indicators. Millions of ordinary people are paying a huge price for the active cuddling of its brutal military junta by China, Russia & Thailand, and the practical indifference of ASEAN, India, Japan, US, EU and other world powers. The UN development & humanitarian agencies do what they can, but the Security Council is paralyzed to mount any effective measures. Kul  

Children lining up for food in Karenni State Video shared by John Gilmartin

New data released by UNICEF reveals an alarming increase in civilian casualties – including many children – caused by the use of landmines and other explosive ordnance used by different parties in the escalating conflict in Myanmar.

From the Guardian "An airstrike on a school in Myanmar’s south-eastern Karenni state killed four children and injured at least 15 others, according to five witnesses. The victims, all boys aged 12 to 14, were students at the school in Daw Si Ei village, which served about 200 students and was run by local community members and former government teachers. Two additional children remain in critical condition after being wounded in the head and abdomen." From UN News “UNICEF strongly condemns any strikes against schools and places of learning, which must always be safe spaces for children,” Debora Comini, UNICEF Regional Director for East Asia and the Pacific, said in a statement . “Attacks against schools are a grave violation of children’s rights and international humanitarian law.” According to media reports, over 100 children were present at the time of the attack. Those killed and injured were among many running to bunkers as military aircrafts dropped bombs and fired machi...

Marking the sixth anniversary of the Myanmar military’s genocidal attacks against the Rohingya, a UN expert today called on world leaders to end the paralysis of indifference and take action to hold the architects and perpetrators of this violence to account while supporting Rohingya refugees and internally displaced persons. Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar issued the following statement: “Responsibility for the immense suffering of the Rohingya starts at the top. Min Aung Hlaing, who led the genocidal campaign, is now at the head of an illegal and illegitimate military junta that is attacking civilian populations throughout Myanmar. He must be brought to justice and be made to answer for his crimes. On 25 August 2017, the Myanmar military launched a massive offensive to drive the Rohingya people from their homeland in northern Rakhine State. In the weeks that followed, soldiers murdered, raped, and tortured Rohingya civilians and bur...

Myanmar's Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and UN's Martin Griffiths with Naypyidaw.  Civil society groups working on Myanmar have criticised United Nations relief chief Martin Griffiths over his recent trip to the country, saying his visit failed to make substantial progress on humanitarian assistance and lent legitimacy to coup leaders who had “weaponized aid”. Griffiths, the UN’s undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, travelled to Naypyidaw last week where he was pictured on the front page of the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar in a handshake with army chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing who led the military’s February 2021 power grab. During the three-day trip, Griffiths also visited a camp for displaced Rohingya and a village near Sittwe in the northwestern state of Rakhine , which was devastated by Cyclone Mocha three months ago. The UN relief chief’s visit also took place as flooding and landslides caused by monsoon rains ...

Repeated, horrific violations have been recorded by the UN human rights office, including mass killings, extra-judicial executions and beheadings, Mr. Türk said, while the military has continued to carry out atrocities in Rakhine state where the Rohingya minority are denied citizenship. In an address to the Council he called for an end to impunity by the ruling junta who overthrew the democratically elected Government in February 2021. “I encourage States to consider a referral of the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC). We also need to ensure accountability for possible crimes committed by different armed groups.” ‘Deadly freefall’ The High Commissioner said the country was continuing a “deadly freefall into even deeper violence and heartbreak.” Where once there had been optimism and hopes of a more peaceful and prosperous future, civilians were now living “at the whim of a reckless military authority that relies on systematic control tactics, fear and terr...

Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has made a surprise visit to military-run Myanmar on behalf of a group of elder statesmen that engages in peace-making and human rights initiatives around the world, local media and a South Korean diplomat said Monday. State television MRTV reported Monday night that Ban, deputy chair of The Elders, met in the capital, Naypyitaw, with top leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing. It said they exchanged views on the situation in Myanmar in a friendly, positive and open discussion. It did not report details of the meeting, which it said was also attended by the ministers of defense and foreign affairs. It said Ban arrived with a small delegation on Sunday and was greeted by the deputy ministers of defense and foreign affairs. It said Ban's party departed Monday after the meetings. The visit by Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, appeared certain to have focused on Myanmar's ongoing political crisis. “This visit by Mr. Ban Ki-moon was...

Click here to download the full sitrep  Highlights • The humanitarian and human rights situation in Myanmar remains Figure 1functional disability assessments on more than 3000 program participants in volatile in the first quarter of 2023, with continuing displacement in priority townships of Yangon (including Hlaingtharyar, Shwepyithar, and Dala). the north-west and south-east. The number of people displaced nationally reached 1,766,600 with a slight decrease for those prior to 1 February 2021, now 328,000 displaced compared to previous report indicating 330,400. • In Kachin, Shan and Rakhine states displaced people were instructed to return to their place of origins by the end of March, but with limited information on safe return or assistance. • 31,187 people received primary health care services, and 465 children aged 9–18 months were vaccinated against measles in Rakhine, Kachin, and Shan with the assistance of partner organizations. • Under the Bright Start programme, 71,155 ...

James Rodehaver, Chief of OHCHR Myanmar A report published by the United Nations on Friday accused Myanmar's military of creating "a perpetual human rights crisis" in the southeast Asian country and called for an immediate end to violence there. Click here for the report Since a junta seized power two years ago, Myanmar has been plunged into chaos, with a resistance movement fighting the military on multiple fronts after a bloody crackdown on opponents that saw Western countries re-impose sanctions. The report, which documents alleged human rights violations between Feb. 1, 2022, and Jan. 31, 2023, found that violence had intensified in northwestern and southeastern Myanmar due to the military's "indiscriminate air strikes and artillery shelling, mass burnings of villages to displace civilian populations, and denial of humanitarian access." The tactic used by the military, the report said, was designed to cut off non-state armed groups from access to food, ...

Thomas Andrews, Special Rapporteur The State Administration Council (SAC) is illegal and illegitimate, Special Rapporteur Thomas Andrews said at the launch, co-hosted by the democracy and electoral assistance body, International IDEA. He called on the international community to stand firm against military rule, create a coalition of Member States to enforce strong, coordinated sanctions, and support the democratic National Unity Government, which has a stronger claim to legitimacy. “Two years ago, the military deposed a democratically elected government in an unconstitutional coup,” the Special Rapporteur said, presenting his new report Illegal and Illegitimate: Examining the Myanmar Military’s Claim as the Government of Myanmar and the International Response. “The unrelenting violence that it unleashed on the people of Myanmar has created a widespread human rights, humanitarian, and economic crisis and galvanized nationwide opposition.” Sanctions, aid sorely needed The conclusion is ...

Very little trickles down by way of news on Myanmar in the mainstream media these days. And those that do, remain alarming.  This recent news coverage on the plight of children in Myanmar calls for concern. 5.6 million children are reported to be in need of humanitarian assistance. Compounded to this, the junta is blamed for deaths of more than 160 children in 2022, according to the exiled National Unity Government. The figure "appears credible" according to a senior consultant of the International Crisis Group.  A UN report released in June'22, put the number of children tortured since the coup at 142 with more than 1,400 arbitrarily detained. Much of diplomatic pressure on the regime through the recent past has yielded negligible results.  The UN Child Rights Committee has previously called for perpetrators to be held accountable and for assistance to be delivered safely to Myanmar’s children. Nothing has been achieved in this regard to date. Diplomatic pressures by the...

Despite the urgency of Myanmar’s complex political, military, human rights crisis, international attention is waning. This article urges renewed international attention for the people of Myanmar after the military coup of February 2021. I. Myanmar’s brief period of democracy During the 2010s, Myanmar saw positive changes including attempts to bring to an end some of the longest standing insurgencies on the planet and increasing levels of democratization. In late 2011 and early 2012, the new civilian government embarked upon ceasefire negotiations with eighteen of the twenty-four ethnic insurgencies. In 2012, democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, head of the National League for Democracy (NLD), also won a series of by-elections which demonstrated the strength of her appeal and the support for the democratic movement. It was only in the elections of 2015 , that the NLD won an absolute majority of seats in both chambers of the Burmese Parliament. On 15 March 2016, Htin Kyaw...

Al Jazeera reported in late September that "hundreds of civil society groups" in Myanmar had sent an open letter to the Secretary-General calling for him to put a stop to UN agencies presenting credentials and signing agreements with coup leaders in control of the government. The letter noted that UN "agencies including the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) , UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) had signed new agreements with the regime and presented credentials to military appointees in August and September 2022. It added that “the public ceremonies, which were arranged with photographs, were used as propaganda by the military junta in its ongoing attempts to assert their legitimacy”. A recent op-ed in the Washington Post  by Yanghee Lee voiced similar concerns, saying that 'U.N. agencies appear to have no coherent strategy fo...

A surprisingly strong & straight-forward statement by Noeleen Heyzer, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Myanmar, in her address to the United Nations General Assembly’s Third Committee 25 October 2022. I hope the ASEAN leaders heed Noeleen's appeal, since the UN by itself is unlikely to be more proactive given other global priorities and the position taken by China and Russia at the Security Council, and India's wishy-washy position. Kul A People No Longer Willing to Accept Military Rule By Noeleen Heyzer* The political, human rights and humanitarian crisis in Myanmar continues to take a catastrophic toll on the people, with serious regional implications. More than 13.2 million people are food insecure, about 40 percent of the population is living below the poverty line and 1.3 million are internally displaced. Military operations continue with disproportionate use of force including aerial bombings, burning of civilian structures, and the killing of civilians in...

“My situation has made me a poet and artist." Mayyu Khan, 20 Azimul captured this image after a fire ripped through his temporary home in Cox’s Bazar. “It is important because there are many things journalists miss — but I live in the camps and am myself a refugee, so I can capture the daily reality of my community.Through my photos, the world can be updated about the situation in the refugee camps. Ro Anamul Hasan, 24 These opening lines are from “My Refugee Life” by poet Ro Anamul Hasan. His writing examines his experiences with horrific violence in Myanmar, a place where his uncles were arbitrarily arrested and tortured  and from where he was forced to flee.

Tom Andrews UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar  Click here for the original article Click here for the Special Rapporteur's report Scores of children have been killed in Myanmar since last year's coup, not just in the crossfire of conflict but as deliberate targets of a military willing to inflict immense suffering, a United Nations expert said on Tuesday. Minors had been beaten and stabbed and had fingernails or teeth removed during interrogation, while some were made to endure mock executions, according to a report from U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews. The junta has repeatedly scolded the U.N. and Western countries for interference and rejected allegations it is carrying out atrocities. A military spokesman could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. Based on contributions from U.N. agencies, humanitarian and human rights groups and civil society organisations, the report said 250,000 children were displaced by fighting, and at t...

Dear all, fyi, some of you might also have met/know Noleen Heyzer - recently appointed as the UN Envoy for Myanmar. She has an incredible life/career and been one of the change-makers in the field of gender equality. Hope that in her new capacity - she can continue making a difference and speak truth to power. Very best, Niloufar Noeleen Heyzer of Singapore Is Named the UN’s New Envoy for Myanmar By Laura E. Kirkpatrick passblue.com 1 min View Original Noeleen Heyzer, a Singaporean and a former head of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, has been named the new UN envoy for Myanmar. Here, she participates in a ceremony in 2013 marking the 60th anniversary of the signing of the armistice agreement ending the Korean War on July 27, 1953.  Noeleen Heyzer , an expert in conflict resolution, economic development and women’s rights, has been named the next United Nations special envoy for Myanmar/Burma. Heyzer, from Singapore, was the first women t...