On CCTV systems and human rights Back to contents 73 On the lack of transparency and public participation Given the increasingly brutal crackdown against pushback, critique, and political speech, together with the intention of ubiquity and tracking implicit in Myanmar’s current CCTV procurement, ARTICLE 19 believes that the authorities are failing in their duty to uphold this right for the people of Myanmar. The country's current approach towards CCTV installation perpetuates the idea of mass surveillance. Despite the narrative of the NLD government to install AI-driven surveillance technology in big cities to provide ‘safety’ to the public, there was hardly any kind of public consultation on potential surveillance within broader smart city frameworks or consultations.141 The question of a legitimate aim is important here. Even if safety concerns may be legitimate, their potential impact on human rights means that the deployment of CCTVs should be subject to scrutiny, public debate, and deliberation. But this is not the case in practice. High-level officials seem to have embraced a reliance on Chinese companies like Huawei and Dahua as a way to exacerbate existing practices, and also to impart new ones along the way.142 As the government has been using various tracking systems – ranging from traditional phone tapping, special police, and car tracking to mandatory guest registrations – CCTV technology can and will readily assist such restrictive measures for the junta.