Who buys and controls the CCTV? Back to contents 70 Right to non-discrimination and the right to equality The right to non-discrimination and the right to equality is protected by Article 2 and Article 7 of the UDHR and is given legal force through Article 2 and 26 of the ICCPR, Article 2(2) of the International Covenant of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as regional treaties and instruments. The right to equality implies that all persons are to be given ‘equal and effective protection against discrimination on any ground such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status’. Interviewees mentioned their concerns about the increasing power differential between police officers and individuals afforded by the use of CCTVs. In Yangon, CCTVs were installed as a priority in ‘high crime’ areas like Hlaing Thar Yar, which is also home to some of the weaker socioeconomic communities in the city.136 This indicates that CCTVs are more likely to be installed in neighbourhoods with poorer socioeconomic backgrounds, intensifying concerns around the concentration of power. Some interviewees even went so far as to suggest that the use of CCTVs could worsen how police forces harass and intimidate vulnerable and marginalised communities such as transgender people, who have been previously targeted with abuse from the Myanmar police.137 Disproportionate CCTV surveillance is not only likely to fall on weaker socioeconomic groups, but also ethnic and religious minorities in Myanmar given its track record in previous years. In 2017, Myanmar security forces perpetrated a campaign of violence against the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine State which the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called a ‘textbook example of ethnic cleansing’.138 The 2017 fact-finding mission found that there had been violence against minority groups, amounting to genocide and crimes against humanity, with the military primarily responsible.139