International obligations relating to privacy 9. Myanmar is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (‘UDHR’) but it has not ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (‘ICCPR’). Article 12 of the UDHR provides that “no one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation”. Areas of concern I. Failure to sign major international treaties 10. Myanmar has still not signed nor ratified many of the major international treaties, including the ICCPR, which upholds the right to privacy under Article 17. 11. In June 2013,11 the National Human Rights Commissioner of Myanmar recommended that the government ratify the ICCPR and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ('ICESCR'). The Commission also called for the government to subsequently undertake legal reforms in order to align its national legislation with these treaties. II. Communication surveillance 12. In the five decades of military dictatorship that Myanmar endured, state surveillance was part of a systematic policy to control citizens and monitor political dissent. Political reforms have been initiated since 2010, but since the political turmoil that occurred in Myanmar in 2013 as a result of religious unrest and legal reform pushed by the opposition, state surveillance has actually intensified.12 13. A recent report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, which was presented at the 28th session of the Human Rights Council noted her concern about regular communications surveillance of human right defenders.13 These reports 11 12 13 Article 19, Myanmar: National Human Rights Commission recommends ratifying key human rights treaties, Press release, 21 June 2013. Available at: http://www.article19.org/resources.php/resource/37119/en/myanmar:-national-human-rights-commissionrecommends-ratifying-key-human-rights-treaties Freedom House, Freedom on the Net 2014: Myanmar. Available at: https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/resources/Myanmar.pdf A/HRC/28/72, para. 9, which reads as follows,“Human rights defenders informed the Special Rapporteur of regular surveillance through phone calls, monitoring and inquiries of their movements and activities. She highlights the obligation of the Government to demonstrate the necessity and