Burma/Myanmar: The absence of minimum conditions for elections

Joint written statement submitted by LRWC and the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) to the Human Rights Council’s 14th session.

Although many groups and scholars have pointed to specific problems associated with the electoral process, the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) and Lawyers Rights Watch Canada (LRWC) are concerned to anchor these in the larger and deeper obstacles to social and political change in Myanmar. In this statement, we have chosen to drawn the Council’s attention to the absence from Myanmar of three basic minimum features of free and fair elections: namely, the absence of a judiciary; the absence of a normative framework for civil rights; and, the absence of opportunities for free speech.

Read the full statement here (pdf).