Publications

Many practices within Myanmar’s criminal justice system deprive the accused of their fair trial rights. Even where domestic law guarantees the protection of these rights, entrenched practices deprive people of just outcomes, undermine trust in the system and perpetuate and reinforce negative public perceptions about all justice actors.

Justice Base and MyJustice are working to counteract such practices by developing and empowering communities of legal practitioners who, through peer discussion and debate, identify key challenges faced by defence lawyers when attempting to protect their clients’ rights and brainstorm strategies lawyers can use to better respond to rights violations and ensure rights are protected.

This Legal Practice Brief reflects the ideas and contributions of the communities of lawyers in Yangon Region, Mon State, Mandalay Region, Shan State, and Bago Region. We hope that legal practitioners across Myanmar feel empowered by these briefs to strengthen their own practice, including by making it more rights protective.

MyJustice supported its CSO partners in strengthening their capacities to design and implement legal awareness and empowerment programmes. As part of this process, MyJustice and Point B partnered with 18 civil society organisations in Yangon and Mon State to co-create Legal Awareness Strategy Design Hand Book. This handbook is focused on community building – to strengthen rule of law and legal awareness in Myanmar. In many ways, this handbook is an artefact of the collective learning that took place as community partners began the journey of applying a human centred approach to designing effective and meaningful legal awareness activities, programs and services for the communities they serve. In this handbook, you will find very useful and impactful methods, tools, skills and mindsets to design your own legal awareness strategies and initiatives. You can be use it in many ways depending your own interest, needs and background, as activities within this handbook are highly adaptable, interactive and flexible.

This manual is intended to be a practical learning aid and helpful reference guide for community-based paralegals and organizations running community-based paralegal programs.

It should be helpful to paralegal program management staff that supervise and support paralegal services, as well as to those who are interested in learning more about the operations of such programs. Moreover, this manual aims to contribute to developing mechanisms and materials to support sustainable community-based paralegal programs and provide support for a better understanding of the model.

This manual has been prepared as a hands-on document for community-based paralegals to guide them with basic messages about paralegalism, tackling justice issues, and the delivery of quality services. It provides a framework to ensure that community-based paralegal services can be provided in an efficient and quality-assured manner.

Imagine: you live in a wooden house with basic utilities and you depend on your nearby farmland for the livelihood of your family. Private companies, government officials and ethnic armed organisations are interested in your land, but you have no way to defend yourself.

In Myanmar, decades of civil war and abuses by the military and other actors have created an atmosphere of fear and mistrust in institutions. The recent bilateral ceasefire agreements between the ethnic armed organisations and the military have given you some hope, but there is still no peace agreement in place which sets a clear line between the violent past and a more promising future. Your own future livelihood may depend on the help of civil society organisations and the legal assistance they may provide. This is the reality of many people belonging to ethnic minorities such as the Mon and Karen people in South East Myanmar. 

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) works to assist the conflict-affected communities in Myanmar protecting their land. We've conducted a micro level analysis of the situation in Mon State, at the heart of the South East. To address land disputes, the report recommends strengthening information, counselling and legal assistance services and building capacities and institutions.

Land disputes are often a political and social minefield. When it comes to land rights, even the smallest disagreement can raise tensions for farmers, families, communities, governments and ethnic armed organisations. Such disagreements can escalate into conflicts and fuel civil wars. It is therefore vital to find practical ways of addressing issues at the earliest possible stage. 

There are, however, many ways to solve a dispute, some more effective than others. For example, an authority can make a top-down decision based exclusively on available documents (which may not be correct or fair) without any consultation. It may simply impose a solution regardless of the wishes and legal rights of the people involved. Unfortunately, this approach is all too common. Moreover, laws do not always take into account alternative ways of solving conflicts.

In Myanmar, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has worked with village leaders, local authorities and ethnic armed organisations to adopt a “middle way”, in order to address some of the most common land disputes. We have used a process of mediation, analysing the conflicts, interviewing the parties, and proposing options that fit people’s interests rather than their positions. This has resulted in agreements that have the potential to last over time and make everyone’s lives easier.

Our report, A Feasibility Assessment on the Introduction of Alternative Dispute Resolution/Collaborative Dispute Resolution to Resolve Land Disputes in Myanmar, has been written in collaboration with Chris Moore from CDR Associates. It contains a detailed analysis of land dispute resolution in Myanmar and suggests ways to improve access to justice by using this much needed “middle way”. 

Land disputes are often a political and social minefield. When it comes to land rights, even the smallest disagreement can raise tensions for farmers, families, communities, governments and ethnic armed organisations. Such disagreements can escalate into conflicts and fuel civil wars. It is therefore vital to find practical ways of addressing issues at the earliest possible stage.

 There are, however, many ways to solve a dispute, some more effective than others. For example, an authority can make a top-down decision based exclusively on available documents (which may not be correct or fair) without any consultation. It may simply impose a solution regardless of the wishes and legal rights of the people involved. Unfortunately, this approach is all too common. Moreover, laws do not always take into account alternative ways of solving conflicts.

In Myanmar, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has worked with village leaders, local authorities and ethnic armed organisations to adopt a “middle way”, in order to address some of the most common land disputes. We have used a process of mediation, analysing the conflicts, interviewing the parties, and proposing options that fit people’s interests rather than their positions. This has resulted in agreements that have the potential to last over time and make everyone’s lives easier.

Our report, A Feasibility Assessment on the Introduction of Alternative Dispute Resolution/Collaborative Dispute Resolution to Resolve Land Disputes in Myanmar, has been written in collaboration with Chris Moore from CDR Associates. It contains a detailed analysis of land dispute resolution in Myanmar and suggests ways to improve access to justice by using this much needed “middle way”. 

In Myanmar, we're learning more about how village leaders solve land disputes in the traditional way to help inform policy makers on the best ways forward to ensure protection of displaced people.

They say that good boundaries make good neighbours, however it is often difficult to determine where such boundaries lie. In rural Myanmar, disputes over boundaries are often solved through traditional methods, which include engaging the village elders and other customary authorities.

Decades of civil war and massive development have created even more serious problems concerning land, such as people being forced to flee and returning to see their land occupied by others. Sometimes the military, ethnic armed organisations, the government, companies or a combination of them take over the land of farmers without following a legal procedure or providing adequate compensation for the land lost. This creates very serious problems for displaced people. 

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), together with Displacement Solutions, has conducted a study to learn more about how village leaders solve land disputes in the traditional way to help inform policy makers on the best ways forward to ensure protection. The report is entitled "A HLP-Rights Based Assessment of Customary Land Dispute Resolution in Eastern Bago Region and Kayin and Shan States."

Namati offers this brief in the hope that Myanmar’s national reforms and the implementation of the country’s new National Land Use Policy can grow from the lived experience of ordinary Myanmar citizens. Namati and our partners assist farmers in Myanmar to claim their land rights through a community paralegal approach. Community paralegals are trained in relevant laws, community education, negotiation, and mediation skills to work with farmers to resolve a variety of land rights issues. Dozens of data points are documented as part of each case resolution process that illustrates how the legal framework functions in practice. It is this casework data that underpin this policy brief. Focus groups and interviews with paralegals and clients further provide qualitative context and insights.

Namati recommends actions the Myanmar government can take as part of implementing its new National Land Use Policy to help increase women’s engagement in land use management and access to tenure rights. This briefing also provides recommendations for civil society organizations interested in the community paralegal model, and, in particular, in increasing the number of women paralegals in the country as a means of women’s empowerment.

On September 11, 2018 parliament passed an amendment to the Vacant, Fallow and Virgin (VFV) Land Management Law. This law has been criticized by many groups ranging from civil society groups to mining companies. The primary concern is that it will cause further insecurity for farmers and ethnic communities. For purposes of this report when we refer to the VFV Management land law we refer to both the original 2012 VFV and the 2018 amendment to it – which has introduced new problems for farmers.

Most of the lands classified as VFV are in ethnic rural areas and up to 10 million people live or rely on this land for their livelihood. The new law means that these people must now apply for 30-year concessions to use their own land. If they fail to do so and another group such as a company is awarded their land, they face up to two years in prison for trespass. While the amendment does exclude land being used under customary tenure from being classified as VFV, the law provides no definition of customary land or any procedure by which communities can register their land as customary.

This report presents new data from a survey of 290 farmers who depend on land classified as Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Land.

Legal aid for the criminally accused is essential to ensure access to justice and rule of law, and Justice Centres provide free legal representation for poor and vulnerable people accused of crimes to fight against violations of fair trial and human rights. MyJustice partner International Bridges to Justice has published the Myanmar Criminal Defense Practice Manual, which provides practical analysis and advice for criminal defense lawyers in Myanmar to provide a robust defense on behalf of their clients. The Manual is part of an ongoing effort to build the capacity of legal professionals to defend the rights of the accused, create a fairer criminal justice system, and expand access to justice.

Legal Aid in Myanmar is at an important stage in its development. The Government of Myanmar recently enacted a Legal Aid Law, commnities and individuals are learning about the availability of legal aid, and legal aid providers are perfecting the skills needed to serve their clients. This Legal Aid Toolkit was prepared with the goal of educating and assisting Myanmar’s legal aid providers during this exciting transition.