4.8 – Criticism of “Human Rights” and “Democracy” Observation Hate speech commonly included criticism of “human rights,” sometimes also alongside “democracy,” as the cause of current problems and/ or foreign to and inappropriate for Myanmar. Inclusive messages that use human rights to argue for non-discrimination were attacked by comments criticizing human rights. For example, many users stated the perception that certain rights are more of a priority than others; this was the single most dominant message undermining the call for equality under posts about LGBTQ people. Other messages argued that recognizing the human rights of LGBTQ people is inappropriate for Myanmar or incompatible with Burmese Buddhist values. Under anti-Muslim posts, human rights was also said to be a weakness that prevented protecting one’s own race. Others blamed “democracy” as the cause of social conflicts, implying that it was safer under military rule. Under posts about ethnic groups, users suggested that some kinds of people do not deserve human rights by saying, for example, “rebels don’t deserve human rights.” Counter message also made references to human rights; without blaming human rights, they used the logic of karma, such as saying “if you don’t respect the rights of others, you’ll never get your own human rights.26” Interpretations In Burmese “Human rights” is translated as လူအခွငအ ့်် စရ်း, which can also mean “human opportunities.” This has been pointed out by many; the problem is said to be that rights/opportunities are thought to be disconnected from responsibility and conduct, and thus unearned. But observations related to the theme of “being human” (4.1 and 4.2 above) in counter-speech suggests that critiques of human rights do not necessarily mean there is no other basis in Myanmar culture for claiming there are standards of treatment and conduct that attach to status as a human being. While this may not provide a basis for claiming something like rights, it may still have an important social effect: failure to recognize the human status of another person may reflect badly on the speaker and is thus undesirable. 26 Annex 15 22