A/HRC/34/67 informed of additional cases involving comments against President Htin Kyaw and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, but due to time constraints was unable to visit the relevant detention facilities. 28. The Special Rapporteur also met Htin Kyaw and Khaing Myo Tun, who were charged under section 505 (a) and (b) of the Penal Code respectively, concerning allegations made against the military. In the case of Htin Kyaw, he was also charged under the 2011 Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law and sentenced to two months’ imprisonment in February 2017. 29. The Special Rapporteur has already expressed concern that the 2011 Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law does not allow for spontaneous gatherings. Nonetheless, it is puzzling that a lone medical student was reportedly arrested on 4 February 2017 and charged under that law for expressing his support for peace as the law defines an assembly as a gathering of “more than one person”. C. 1. Development and economic, social and cultural rights Economic, social and cultural rights and rights relating to land 30. The Special Rapporteur believes that improving the realization of economic, social and cultural rights is vital to ensuring that no one is left behind in the development process. She calls on the Government to ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which, together with the Sustainable Development Goals, can constitute a comprehensive framework for efforts in that area. 31. Child labour remains widespread in Myanmar with 1.1 million children affected by it. The Special Rapporteur was particularly concerned by the recent case of two girls who were forced to work and subjected to abuse in a tailoring shop in Yangon. She raised with the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission its role in that specific case and recalls that the abuses committed against those children should have been addressed as a priority rather than mediating their back pay. 32. She welcomes the Government’s efforts, in collaboration with ILO, to develop a national action plan on child labour, and a list of hazardous forms of work prohibited for children. She reiterates her call for the age of compulsory education, as well as other forms of technical vocational education, to be raised incrementally to match the employment age, and for the ratification of the ILO Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138). While welcoming the extension of a forced labour complaints mechanism with ILO for 2017, and noting the reactivation of the high-level and technical working groups, it is important that initiatives are taken to localize the mechanism. 33. Birth registration is important for combating child labour and to ensure access to vital services. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the first electronic platform for birth registration and efforts to expand registration. However, she notes that registration is alarmingly low for Muslims in Rakhine State and in some conflict-affected areas of Kachin and Shan States. She encourages increased efforts to improve birth registration in those areas, especially given the additional vulnerabilities frequently faced by children there. In non-government controlled areas in Kachin, civil documentation issued by ethnic armed groups is not officially recognized, causing difficulty for children with such documents to enrol in government schools. 34. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the budget increase of the Ministries of Education and of Social Welfare, Resettlement and Relief and also welcomes the extension of free education to high school level. However, continued efforts are needed to ensure access to education for all, particularly minority groups. She is concerned that the qualifications of those who have studied in schools administered by ethnic-based organizations are not recognized, making it harder for them to access jobs and other opportunities in governmentcontrolled areas. 35. In Rakhine State, the socioeconomic situation is reported to have remained relatively static, with Muslims not having benefited from any improvements in the past year. While 6