A/HRC/34/67
health-care facilities and infrastructure have improved to an extent, skilled and trained
health professionals remain acutely insufficient,6 and Muslims are still being prevented by
the authorities from accessing many township hospitals, even during emergencies. She
reiterates calls to ensure that all people, without discrimination, have safe access to
township hospitals. Regarding access to education, she understands there is only one high
school in Sittwe rural area, which currently serves the school-aged children of families
driven out from nine townships following the 2012 violence. Temporary learning spaces,
providing only basic primary education, are usually crowded and run at double shifts.
Furthermore, in the northern part of Rakhine State, many Rakhine teachers are reportedly
unwilling to return after being evacuated following the 9 October 2016 attacks.
36.
Four years on, there appears to be no progress in finding durable solutions for the
120,000 Muslim internally displaced persons who remain in camps in central Rakhine, or
for the 1,400 internally displaced persons within Maungdaw township since 2012.
Decision-making about resource allocation and service expansion by international
humanitarian organizations has been hampered by the lack of information on time frames
and visions for the return or relocation of internally displaced persons. The Special
Rapporteur calls for development, humanitarian and peacebuilding activities to be
addressed in an inclusive, timely and sensitive manner with full regard for the human rights
perspective to ensure a smoother transition towards long-term solutions, peace and
reconciliation.
37.
The right to adequate housing is also key and includes protection from forced
evictions. Reportedly in September 2016, Rakhine State government moved to identify
buildings allegedly constructed without permission and have them dismantled. Over 2,200
such buildings in Maungdaw were apparently identified, including mosques and madrasas,
over 400 shop stalls and over 1,600 residential homes. In Buthidaung, over 1,000 “illegal”
buildings were identified, including mosques, madrasas, shops stalls and over 800 homes.
Demolition of those buildings reportedly began in November 2016. Of almost 1,000
structures allegedly dismantled from almost 2,000 identified buildings in Maungdaw south,
80 per cent were houses. Some 89 houses of 285 identified in Rathedaung Township have
also been dismantled. In some cases, individuals were reportedly made to dismantle their
own homes or were extorted by security personnel to avoid demolition.
38.
In all those cases, the owners and residents affected did not appear to have been
provided with alternative housing that satisfied the criteria for adequacy,7 nor the right to
adequate and effective legal or other appropriate remedies, which are required to be made
available to those claiming that their right to protection against forced eviction has been
violated or is under threat of violation. The Special Rapporteur is therefore concerned that
the dismantling of those structures is part of the Government’s apparent wider systematic
and institutionalized discriminatory policy against the Rohingya and Muslim populations in
Rakhine State.
39.
With an estimated 70 per cent of the population of Myanmar in rural areas, land is
central to people’s livelihoods; addressing historic and continuing land confiscation
remains a challenge. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the continuing return of land by the
Central Review Committee on Confiscated Farmlands and Other Lands. However, over
8,000 cases remain pending. She is concerned by prosecutions of those fighting land
confiscations. For example, in Shan State, 72 people were sentenced to a month’s
imprisonment for trespass after working land they used to own but which was allegedly
confiscated by the military.
40.
The National Land Use Policy, adopted in 2016 after extensive consultation,
contains important guarantees, including on recognizing customary land use, and
community consultations. The Special Rapporteur is therefore concerned by its possible
revision, potentially removing such key provisions. She calls for those protections to be
6
7
See Center for Diversity and National Harmony, Rakhine State Needs Assessment II (Yangon, 2016).
The criteria include accessibility, affordability, habitability, security of tenure, cultural adequacy,
suitability of location and access to essential services such as health and education. See
www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Housing/Guidelines_en.pdf.
7
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