2
involvement of children in armed conflicts (OP-CRC-AC)
Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities(CRPD-OP)
Five of the eight ILO Fundamental Conventions: 87
• Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention No. 98
• Equal Remuneration Convention No. 100
• Abolition of Forced Labour Convention No. 105
• Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention No. 111
• Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138)
158 out of the 177 ILO Technical Conventions
Any of the four ILO Governance Conventions
In addition, the Government reportedly has not conducted any assessment of the
compatibility of its existing laws with its obligations under international law. 88 Domestic
courts cannot directly invoke the provisions of international or regional human rights
instruments to interpret national laws unless such standards are incorporated into national
legislation. 89 While it is not unusual for international law not to be automatically
incorporated into domestic law, one implication of this is that Myanmar’s judiciary cannot
have recourse to international human rights law to circumscribe the wide discretionary
powers that Myanmar’s laws confer on the executive branch.
D. Domestic Legal Framework Governing Myanmar’s ICT
Sector
This section analyses the ICT-specific Myanmar laws in Table 9, and how the
interpretation of their provisions could result in negative impacts on human rights. It
should not, however, be taken as a description of how these provisions have been used in
practice. That said, many of the pre-2011 laws have been used to jail political activists
and human rights defenders.
It explains how even provisions identified in more recent laws might perversely require
ICT companies to assist the Government to arbitrarily restrict certain rights, in order to
maintain their legal licenses. Table 21 at the end of this Chapter also identifies key
provisions of concern from other domestic laws not specific to ICTs that could be, and in
some cases have been, used to infringe the rights to freedom of expression or
association.
87
ILO Normlex, “Up-to-date Conventions not ratified by Myanmar” (last accessed August 2015).
DLA Piper et al, Myanmar Rule of Law Assessment (March 2013), p. 27.
89 UN General Assembly, “Compilation prepared by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in
accordance with paragraph 15 (b) of the annex to Human Rights Council resolution 5/1, Myanmar”,
A/HRC/WG.6/10/MMR/2 (15 Nov 2010), para. 5.
88
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ICT GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS, POLICIES & LEGAL FRAMEWORK
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