face a significant risk of contributing to abuses, particularly in sectors, such as telecommunications and the Internet, that have been linked with past abuses and where rights-based reforms to date have been inadequate. Opening up these sectors to international investment raises the risk that the government may seek to involve technology companies in illegal surveillance, censorship, and other abuses. In this report, Human Rights Watch has outlined several steps necessary to promote adequate human rights protections for Internet and mobile phone users in Burma, and the actions needed to foster responsible investment in Burma’s telecommunications and Internet sectors. Telecommunications and ICT companies should not move forward in Burma until such measures are in place, in view of the human rights risks. The analysis and recommendations contained in this report are based on research conducted from February to April 2013. The report’s analysis focuses on laws most relevant to Burma’s telecommunications and ICT sectors, and does not provide a comprehensive treatment of Burma’s laws, legal system or constitution. Telecommunications and Internet liberalization could create an opportunity for the government and companies to adopt appropriate standards to safeguard human rights. The Burmese government should expeditiously repeal draconian laws enacted by the former military government that have been used to restrict access to ICTs and mobile phones and prosecute journalists and activists for their peaceful online activity. The government should also enact new legal protections for the rights to freedom of expression, access to information, and privacy, including in a new telecommunications law currently being considered by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the parliament. Consistent with the internationally recognized responsibility of all business enterprises to respect human rights, as reflected in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, companies should act to avoid complicity in human rights violations.5 5 See UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Representative on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, John Ruggie, Protect, Respect and Remedy: a Framework for Business and Human Rights, UN Doc. A/HRC/8/5, April 7 2008, http://www.reports-and-materials.org/Ruggie-report-7-Apr-2008.pdf (accessed April 10, 2013); UN OHCHR, “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ Framework,” UN Doc. HR/PUB/11/04, 2011, http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/GuidingPrinciplesBusinessHR_EN.pdf (accessed April 10, 2013). REFORMING TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN BURMA 2