[{"bbox": [97, 153, 1133, 207], "category": "Text", "text": "discourse, with important opportunities to be seized in working with emerging coalitions of actors to build\nconsensus on future transitional justice mechanisms."}, {"bbox": [97, 218, 750, 246], "category": "Section-header", "text": "Capture of formal justice institutions and weaponization of the law"}, {"bbox": [97, 257, 1133, 682], "category": "Text", "text": "Myanmar continues to witness a deterioration of its citizens’ access to justice. Since the Coup, most justice\ninstitutions have either stopped functioning or have been co-opted by the regime or compromised to the point that\nthey cannot provide justice for ordinary people. Threats, unwarranted arrests, abusive treatment and violence\nduring arrests are commonplace. Particularly important is the situation of women activists that keep working under\nconstant threat and distress for them and their families. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)\nreports that in 2023 at least 550 people were killed in various ways after being detained. Prisons also suffer from\nserious overcrowding and prisoners lack access to basic services. The justice sector-wide institutional crisis has\nbeen exacerbated by the regime's revision of the legal framework in ways that enhance its power, diminish\naccountability, and provide legal cover for human rights violations. These revisions have included expanding the\nscope of criminal offenses, imposing more severe penalties, broadening immunities for security forces, and\nreviving special military courts. Since 2023, we observe a shift in the identity of those targeted by the regime.\nWhereas in the past a large number of the politically motivated cases consisted of individuals engaged in public\nprotests, public display of dissent has now drastically reduced and the military seems to be targeting individuals it\nregards as more serious political threat. Aside from civilian courts, military tribunals continue to operate in the\ntownships under martial law⁷ and hand down the harshest sentences. Out of all judicial processes, these are the\nmost problematic, with a complete lack of access, transparency, legal representation and right of appeal."}, {"bbox": [97, 694, 1133, 880], "category": "Text", "text": "Many lawyers are under surveillance and receive threats on a regular basis⁸. Recently introduced legislation now requires the disclosure on an annual basis of confidential and sensitive information by lawyers relating to case load and sources of incomes. Another recent amendment of the Legal Aid Law restricts access to legal aid for pre-trial detainees and non-citizens, places limits on the role of paralegals, and undermines the independence of legal aid bodies. Corruption and judicial subservience also continues to threaten effective and ethical representation as governmental justice actors increasingly demand petty bribes to perform routine functions such as hearing cases and copying files, while seeking larger sums to guarantee case outcomes."}, {"bbox": [97, 892, 1133, 1026], "category": "Text", "text": "Yet, in a post-coup context, and despite huge challenges to work on access to justice, support to legal aid and rights\ndefense through state courts takes paramount importance, in first instance in order to protect individuals and groups\ntargeted because of their engagement for democracy, but also because, as most citizens and civil society are\nsearching for a new vision for Myanmar's future, there is the opportunity to lay the foundations for a future polity\nbuilt from the bottom up with rule of law orientations and full recognition of the value of political accountability."}, {"bbox": [97, 1037, 1133, 1170], "category": "Text", "text": "Previous EU funded justice interventions show that legal empowerment interventions which include basic concepts such as fairness, justice, laws as protection, and rights-based approaches do impact community attitudes. They also confirm that state capture of the judicial system is not complete. Local courts and police generally consider the Legal Aid centres as valuable actors to the extent that they continue to refer cases to them despite the overall collapse in the rule of law⁹."}, {"bbox": [97, 1181, 1095, 1210], "category": "Section-header", "text": "Unmet justice needs and preference for informal and community-based dispute resolution mechanisms"}, {"bbox": [97, 1221, 1133, 1435], "category": "Text", "text": "The absence of civilian rule of law to address injustices and human rights violations, as well as violations of\ninternational humanitarian law, has entrenched impunity. Additionally, in this context, it also appears extremely\ndifficult for ordinary citizens to resolve their grievances peacefully and effectively through the civil justice\nsystem¹⁰. Given the capture of the formal justice system by the regime, as well as factors pre-existing the military\ncoup such as distrust of state structures, lack of legal awareness and pervasive socio-religious customs, people\nseeking justice are prompted to opt for the lowest level possible of community dispute resolution mechanisms to\nsolve their justice needs. Even before the 2021 military Coup, people tended to see the role of the justice sectors\nand of the law as means to control people, rather than providing processes to protect people's right or resolve"}, {"bbox": [86, 1509, 639, 1531], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁷ 61 township across Myanmar out of a total of 330, as of March 2024"}, {"bbox": [86, 1531, 1142, 1577], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁸ For a comprehensive overview of the threats faced by lawyers, see the report “A State of Collapse” (Report, September 2022)\nhttps://www.academia.edu/86369434/A_State_of_Collapse_The_Experience_of_Lawyers_Seeking_Justice_in Post_coup_Myanmar"}, {"bbox": [86, 1577, 1065, 1599], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁹ According to “My Justice II” 2023 annual report, 19% of Legal Aid centres’ caseload were referred from courts and police"}, {"bbox": [86, 1599, 1142, 1646], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁰ As suggested by the very low ranking (138/142) of Myanmar on the “Civil Justice” indicator of the WJP\nhttps://worldjusticeproject.org/rule-of-law-index/country/2023/Myanmar/Civil%20Justice/"}, {"bbox": [1028, 1656, 1143, 1682], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 5 of 32"}]