A/HRC/39/CRP.2 against individuals reporting or alleging its involvement in violations. 477 Some said they did not see any point in filing a complaint with the police or Tatmadaw, and instead they themselves searched for the missing person. 478 One individual from Loilen Township, Shan State, told the Mission he did not file a complaint concerning his missing father as “the government does not care about us and the Tatmadaw are abusive - there is no justice for the Shan”.479 His father was arrested by the Tatmadaw in 2011 and was then missing for a week before his body was found in the forest with his hands tied. The Mission also received credible information that in one case, where two individuals were missing in Mansi Township, Kachin State in 2018, the Tatmadaw denied villagers permission to search for them.480 In another case, an individual told the Mission how she had to persuade her village administrator to look for her a relative who had been arrested by the Tatmadaw in Bhamo Township, Kachin State in January 2018: My relative went to check the cattle and didn’t come back. Some people told us that they had seen him tied up and with Tatmadaw soldiers. We asked the village administrator permission to go and look for him, but he said it was too dangerous. We insisted and eventually we were allowed to go. We found his body one month later, facing down in a ditch. We could see bullet wounds in his back – it looked like he had also been beaten.481 6. Forced labour and forced recruitment of adults and children 253. Forced labour is a common feature of life for many in northern Myanmar. 482 The Mission verified a pattern of continuing systematic use by the Tatmadaw of forced labour, including for portering, digging trenches, guiding or cooking. Soldiers routinely arrived in villages without warning and took people for forced labour, often for weeks at a time. Some of those taken were required to fight for the Tatmadaw. The Tatmadaw recruited children throughout the reporting period, although it has undertaken some efforts to address this issue. (a) Legal framework 254. The International Labour Organization Forced Labour Convention 1930 (No. 29), which Myanmar acceded to in 1955, defines forced or compulsory labour as “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily”. Under this Convention, Myanmar is obliged to suppress the use of forced or compulsory labour in all its forms within the shortest possible period. Myanmar has also acceded to the International Labour Organization Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention 1999 (No. 182), under which it is obliged to take immediate and effective measures to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour 477 478 479 480 481 482 64 See this chapter, section C.3: Lack of recourse. PI-069, PI-082. PI-082. K-139. PI-106. In 1998, a Commission of Inquiry of the International Labour Organization (ILO) published a report concluding that Myanmar violated its obligation to suppress the use of forced or compulsory labour “in a widespread and systematic manner, with a total disregard for the human dignity, safety and health and basic needs of the people”. The Commission found that there was abundant evidence showing “pervasive use of forced labour imposed on the civilian population throughout Myanmar by the authorities and the military”. It concluded that “it is a story of gross denial of human rights to which the people of Myanmar have been subjected particularly since 1988 and from which they find no escape except fleeing from the country”. See, “Forced Labour in Myanmar (Burma). Report of the Commission of Inquiry appointed under article 26 of the Constitution of the International Labour Organization to examine the observance by Myanmar of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29)” (ILO, Geneva, 1998). Some moderately positive improvements in the use of forced labour were reported from 2002 onwards, after greater engagement with the ILO began, suggesting the central authorities no longer requisitioned labour for major national infrastructure projects (e.g. A/HRC/4/14, para. 44; A/HRC/7/18, para. 33). However, systematic forced labour by the military reportedly continued unabated. See e.g. ILO Report on ILO Activities in Myanmar, 20 February 2014, GB. 320/INS/6(Rev.); A/HRC/16/59, para. 93.