Monthly Archives: March 2014
Rights up front
Written on March 31, 2014 at 7:27 am, by Ian Holliday
No more than a few months ago, on December 17, 2013, the UN launched a fresh initiative to boost human rights safeguards around the world. Rights up Front is a direct result of experience at the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009, and an indirect consequence of harrowing humanitarian disasters in Rwanda and…
Census footnote
Written on March 28, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
Data collection for Myanmar’s 2014 census will commence on Sunday, and for 12 days until April 10 enumerators will fan out across the country in an attempt to generate a total population count. In fact, the exercise is already complete in a small number of peripheral communities. For the bulk of the people, however, work…
A will to compromise
Written on March 27, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
Where to look for inspiration when Myanmar’s peace process shifts into the critical phase of political dialogue and options for a federal future are debated? There’s no obvious reason to turn to Italy – except that it has one very successful experience of accommodating ethnic diversity. In 1919, during the fallout from the Great War,…
Racial discrimination in Myanmar
Written on March 26, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
I’m very grateful to Matt Walton for responding in two guest posts the week before last to my analysis of ethnicity and race in Myanmar. As ever, his thinking is rich and stimulating. At the same time, though, I feel more remains to be said, and again I’m writing to work my way through that….
Taking stock of the peace process
Written on March 25, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
Hopes remain high in Myanmar that a nationwide ceasefire will soon pave the way for political dialogue focused on accommodating ethnic diversity in this hugely complex state. Taking stock of where we are now with the peace process is a “lessons learned” report released last week by the Myanmar Peace Support Initiative. MPSI is led…
Self-determination for ethnic nationals – Debby Chan
Written on March 24, 2014 at 12:05 am, by Ian Holliday
Crimea’s secession renews discussion of the right to self-determination. The EU and US condemned the enabling referendum as illegal because it violated Ukraine’s constitution and was conducted under duress of Russia’s military presence. But when do people have the right to choose their sovereignty? Key recent cases of independence referenda and remedial secession are relevant…
Myanmar civil society
Written on March 21, 2014 at 12:01 am, by Ian Holliday
It’s taken me a while to follow up on a brief but intriguing item published in the Irrawaddy on March 11, and subsequently reported in the Myanmar Times on March 17. I wasn’t able immediately to track down the information behind it, and am thus posting about it only now. Run under the headline “45…
R2P in Myanmar
Written on March 20, 2014 at 5:45 am, by Ian Holliday
On March 15, the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect released its latest bimonthly bulletin. In 14 issues of R2P Monitor produced to date, it profiles states within three categories: current crisis, imminent risk, and serious concern. Four countries are now at the top level of current crisis: Syria, Central African Republic, Sudan, and…
Two cheers for Ojea Quintana
Written on March 19, 2014 at 8:00 am, by Ian Holliday
In Geneva on Monday, Tomás Ojea Quintana delivered to the UN Human Rights Council his final report as Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar. Close to the end of a six-year mandate, he reflected on changes witnessed both recently and across a total of nine official missions. He grouped his findings…
Better angels
Written on March 18, 2014 at 7:30 am, by Ian Holliday
Though not much concerned with anything currently happening in Myanmar, or indeed in most other individual states, the Human Security Report 2013 released last week by Canada’s Simon Fraser University provides an important backdrop to humanitarian work the world over. It looks particularly at the thesis advanced by Steven Pinker in The Better Angels of…