A/HRC/10/19 page 6 III. HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES 14. Myanmar is party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child only. However, as a State Member of the United Nations, it is bound by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequent declarations adopted by the General Assembly. 15. The Special Rapporteur commends the Government of Myanmar for submitting its report to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and its appearance before the Committee in November 2008. He encourages the Government’s implementation of the Committee’s concluding observations to ensure improvement of gender balance and the situation of women in Myanmar, including in North Rakhine State. 16. The third and fourth reports of Myanmar under the Convention on the Rights of the Child were due on 13 August 2008. The Special Rapporteur encourages the Government to abide by its reporting obligations and to submit its reports as soon as possible. 17. The human rights situation in Myanmar remains challenging and needs to be addressed quickly and effectively. These challenges include economic, social and cultural rights. For this reason, the Special Rapporteur has promoted the idea of the expansion of the Tripartite Core Group’s mandate beyond the areas affected by Cyclone Nargis to address humanitarian needs in other states, such as Kachin, Rakhine and Chin. 18. As in any other least developed country, poverty is the main reason for a range of problems and a hindrance to the realization of human rights for everyone. While visiting Insein prison in Yangon, and speaking at random with the inmates, the Special Rapporteur spoke with a young girl who claimed to be 17 years old (prison authorities claimed that she was 19) who had been sentenced to two years of imprisonment for having stolen the equivalent of $10. When she was asked to write her name, she responded that she was illiterate. To the Special Rapporteur’s comment that he had heard from all relevant authorities that education was free and compulsory, the authorities’ response was that she was an exception, since she had a poor financial background and had had to work from an early age to support her family. There are many others like her, who are exploited as children and do not receive any education to ensure a better future. 19. During his latest mission to Myanmar, the Special Rapporteur visited the Hpa-An and Insein prisons. These were announced visits. He took a tour of the kitchen and the medical facilities. In both prisons, he spoke at random with the inmates to check their ages, the reason for which they were detained, if they had been brought before a court, if they had had access to legal counsel, and so on. In both prisons, the Special Rapporteur interviewed inmates who had been porters, without remuneration, for the military in Kayin State and had tried to run away because of the harshness of the work. One was a porter of ammunition, the other of food. The probability that there are many other victims of forced labour in prison is high. Also, the probability of those who have not tried to run away is also high. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the one-year extension of the supplementary understanding between the Government of Myanmar and the International Labour Organization (ILO). He strongly recommends that the Government and ILO continue their close cooperation with a view to eradicating forced labour in Myanmar, and in particular to review the domestic policy and the jail manual regarding the use of prisoners by the military and prison labour. In Insein prison, the victim of forced labour was shackled. The