Yangon – The new Myanmar government’s human rights challenges remain despite recent steps towards rapprochement with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the United Nations human rights envoy for the country said Thursday. (more…)

Leaders of Burma’s opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) urged UN envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana to help them secure their party’s existence, and addressed the Depayin Massacre of 2003 during their meeting in Rangoon on Thursday, said party spokesman Nyan Win. (more…)

Despite Burmese President Thein Sein’s recent call for peace talks, deadly clashes continue to flare between government forces and armed ethnic Kachin rebels in the country’s troubled north. (more…)

Chiang Mai – Pro-democracy lawyers whose licenses have been revoked are preparing to apply to renew their license with the help of the National League for Democracy. (more…)

Surapong Kongchantuk, vice chairman of the Thai National Human Rights Commission’s sub-committee on ethnic minorities, the stateless, migrant workers and displaced persons, has said now is not yet the right time to repatriate refugees from Burma. (more…)

Yangon – Foreign firms that win a tender in Myanmar to develop 18 new onshore oil and gas blocks will be required to set up joint ventures with local companies, a senior Energy Ministry official said on Thursday. (more…)

The United Nations has warned that about 12-million people across the world have no citizenship of any country and consequently suffer from a denial of basic human rights. (more…)

The country’s democrats have higher aspirations than the junta’s small moves at poverty alleviation. (more…)

In the unmarked offices of Burma Lawyers’ Council in the Thai border town of Mae Sot, Saw Htun is laughing. The source of this 36-year-old labour rights advisor’s amusement is the idea that Burmese migrant workers might soon be earning 300 baht a day – set to become Thailand’s minimum wage if Yingluck Shinawatra’s newly elected government gets its way. “This won’t apply to Burmese workers,” he says. “They don’t have the ability to make Yingluck Shinawatra prime minister. Thai workers do.” Given that migrant workers in Mae Sot are lucky if they make even two-thirds of Tak province’s current minimum wage of 162 baht, you can forgive Saw Htun the cynicism. (more…)

I have just concluded my five-day mission to Myanmar – my fourth visit to the country since I was appointed in March 2008 and my first since February 2010. I would like to thank the Government of Myanmar for its invitation and hospitality, and for the cooperation and flexibility shown during my visit. (more…)