A/HRC/4/14 page 13 46. The recruitment of child soldiers is another human rights abuse committed within the culture of impunity. The Special Rapporteur has received various reports of the Army continuing to recruit child soldiers at an alarming rate. These reports allege that child recruitment continues even after the Government created a high-level committee that promised to address the problem. The Committee for Prevention of Military Recruitment of Under-Age Children was formed in January 2004 after the Secretary-General reported to the Security Council that Myanmar was violating international law prohibiting the recruitment and use of children as soldiers. The report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict confirms this development. It says that “there are reliable reports of continued forcible recruitment and training of children for the Government armed forces (Tatmadaw Kyi) and non-State armed groups. However, owing to access limitations, the United Nations country team has not been able to systematically verify these allegations”. (A/61/529-S/2006/826, para. 57). 47. As noted by the Special Rapporteur in his previous reports, the serious human rights violations described above have been widespread and systematic over the last decade, suggesting that they are not simply isolated acts of individual misconduct of middle- or low-ranking officers, but rather the result of a system under which individuals and groups have been allowed to breach the law and violate human rights without being called to account. 48. The Special Rapporteur also believes that impunity is one of the main underlying causes of the degrading economic and social conditions of rural farmers, who represent the majority of the population of Myanmar. The militarization of rural areas has created a vicious circle of impoverishment of villagers. The military rely on local labour and other resources as the result of the incapacity of the Government to deliver any form of support for their activities (the self-reliance policy). The Special Rapporteur has received many allegations of villagers being severely punished outside the framework of the law because they refused to perform forced labour and of the unlawful appropriation of their land, livestock, harvest and other property. While Myanmar has increased the number of its battalions nationwide since 1988, the implementation of self-reliance policies by the local military during the past decade has contributed to undermining the rule of law and damaging the livelihoods of local communities. 49. Grave human rights violations meet with impunity and are even authorized by law. In that respect, the Special Rapporteur is seriously concerned at the continued misuse of the legal system, which denies the rule of law and represents a major obstacle to securing the effective and meaningful exercise of fundamental freedoms. The Special Rapporteur regrets to observe that the lack of independence of the judiciary has provided a “legal” basis for abuses of power, arbitrary decision-making and exonerating those responsible for serious human rights violations. The Special Rapporteur has also repeatedly expressed concern to the Government of Myanmar about the abuse of due process in political trials and the denial of basic rights in detention. For the last six years, the Special Rapporteur has received numerous reports concerning arbitrary arrests without warrants, incommunicado detention, torture or ill-treatment in pretrial detention, deaths in custody and very poor conditions of detention without access to adequate food and medical treatment. He has also received reports of defendants who have been denied the right to legal counsel and reports of political trials often being held in camera. 50. The Special Rapporteur considers the criminalization of the exercise of fundamental freedoms by political opponents, human rights defenders and victims of human rights abuses to be a matter of especially grave concern.