A/HRC/34/67 47. Currently the Myanmar garment industry employs around 350,000 workers, most of whom are women. The Special Rapporteur is disturbed to learn that some factories are breaching labour standards, including by forcing workers to work overtime and withholding salaries for periods of illness. 9 The Special Rapporteur recalls that companies have a responsibility not to cause, contribute or be directly linked to human rights abuses. She calls on all investors and business in Myanmar to proactively ensure that they abide by the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework and other relevant standards, ensure respect for human rights through relevant policies and processes, and address any adverse rights impacts with which they are involved. She encourages application of the principles for responsible contracts to ensure that human rights are addressed in negotiations on investment projects between Myanmar and foreign business investors. Ensuring genuine public consultation on bilateral investment treaties being developed and that such treaties protect the ability of Myanmar to regulate to protect human rights is also important. D. Conflict and the peace process 48. The Special Rapporteur is extremely concerned by continued and escalating violence in Kachin, Shan and other states and the increasing impact on civilian populations. The situation has significantly deteriorated in recent months and she is informed that it is currently worse than at any point in the past few years, with fighting increasingly approaching urban centres and populated areas. 1. Displacement and access 49. In northern Shan State, approximately 15,000 persons, almost the entire population of the Mongkoe area, were temporarily displaced. Many have now returned, but the Special Rapporteur was informed that movement in and out of the town remains restricted. In January 2017, an additional 4,000 individuals reportedly remained displaced in northern Shan following the escalation of fighting in November 2016. There were also clashes between the Arakan Army and the Tatmadaw (Army of Myanmar) in Chin State in December 2016, displacing 200 people; and 2,000 people remain displaced following clashes in central Rakhine in April 2016. Around 5,500 persons also remain displaced in Kayin State following violence in September 2016. 50. In Kachin State, an estimated 7,000 individuals have been newly displaced, including nearly the entire population of three camps for internally displaced persons located in non-government controlled areas after shells landed near the camps. Those individuals, who have already been displaced once, were forced to flee for a second and in some cases a third time, often leaving everything behind in the rush to seek safety. Some of them unsuccessfully attempted to cross the Chinese border. Many are still stranded in the border area without proper shelter. Others have arrived in government-controlled areas. The Special Rapporteur met with some of those individuals and one family, with four young children, told her that they were forced to dig a hole in the forest and stay there overnight for six days while trying to find the finances needed to leave the area. 51. The dire situation of civilians in Shan and Kachin States is compounded by the increasing limits on humanitarian access. For over eight months, the United Nations and other international organizations have been systematically denied authorization to travel from government-controlled areas to non-government controlled areas to deliver vital and in some cases lifesaving assistance to over 40,000 internally displaced persons. Access to government-controlled areas is also becoming more restricted, with additional layers of approval needed, including from the Military Northern Command. Where permission is granted it is frequently limited to national staff. Local organizations, often with limited capacity, continue to provide much-needed assistance but also face increasing restrictions. 9 See Martje Theuws and Pauline Overeem, The Myanmar Dilemma: Can the garment industry deliver decent jobs for workers in Myanmar? (Amsterdam, Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations, Action Labor Rights and Labour Rights Defenders and Promoters, 2017). 9