Thank you, Chairperson.

I am speaking on behalf of the European Union and its member States.

The Candidate Countries the Republic of North Macedonia[1] and Albania*, the country of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidate Bosnia and Herzegovina, the EFTA country Norway, member of the European Economic Area, as well as the Republic of Moldova and Georgia align themselves with this statement.

The EU and its Member States are committed to the promotion, protection and respect of human rights and labour rights, including freedom of association, of assembly and abolition of forced labour. We support the indispensable role played by the ILO in developing, promoting and supervising the application of international labour standards and of fundamental Conventions in particular. The EU and its Member States are also committed to the promotion of universal ratification, effective implementation and enforcement of the core labour standards.

We wish to recall the importance we attach to improvements with regard to human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Burma/Myanmar. Compliance with ILO Convention 29 is essential in this respect.

While acknowledging the progress made over the last years, we note with regret that this case is now being addressed as a serious one in relation to elimination of all forms of forced labour.

Based on the Report of the Committee of Experts, cases of forced labour, including underage recruitment by the Tatmadaw army are still being reported and were confirmed by the independent fact-finding mission established by the Human Rights Council, particularly in Kachin and Shan States, as well as among the ethnic Rakhine and Rohingya. Often, victims were given insufficient food of poor quality, did not have access to water and were kept in inadequate accommodation, and some were even subjected to violence if they resisted, worked slowly or rested. Female victims also faced sexual violence.

Forced labour remains a persistent phenomenon in the country, despite the continuous engagement on the issue of the ILO and Member States for over two decades now. Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on a Joint Strategy for the Elimination of Forced Labour was signed in 2012, and then another MoU in January 2018 which agreed on a new Action Plan for the elimination of all forms of forced labour for the year of 2018, followed by the transition to the Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP) in September 2018.

The EU and its Member States are also actively engaging with the government on improving labour rights in the country – including through the Myanmar Labour Rights Initiative. We reconfirm our strong commitment to support the country in this regard. In October 2018 and February 2019, the EU had high-level missions to the country in the context of the enhanced engagement under the Generalized Scheme of Preferences arrangement for Least Developed Countries (‘Everything But Arms’). EU’s GSP requires countries to abide by the principles of the fundamental labour conventions. This provided the opportunity for a comprehensive dialogue with national authorities, including on labour rights issues. The discussions continued during “Senior Officials Meeting” in Brussels in mid-May and will continue during the Human Rights Dialogue in the country on 14^th June.

In the context of today's discussion in relation to persistence of forced labour, we welcome that the government appears to continue working together with the ILO on the existing ILO led complaint mechanism on forced labour until a proper national mechanism for complaints is established and that the National Tripartite Dialogue Forum is consulted in the establishment of the National Complaint Mechanism. At the same time, we would like to express our deep concern over a number of issues:

• Progress in the establishment of the National Complaint Mechanism on forced labour – while noting the new version of the Action Plan to set up the mechanism was agreed with the Minister of Labour, Immigration and Population, it has not been endorsed by other ministries, and in particular by Ministry of Defence administering Tatmadaw. Even once set up, it still remains vital that the complaint mechanism is in practice accessible in particular for victims of the conflict areas, complaints are independently investigated, and victims protected. Meanwhile, cooperation with the ILO-led complaint mechanism has to continue.
• Lack of penal prosecution of offenders – while a number of military personnel was punished by the disciplinary action only, with only one person punished under the Penal Code. The strict application of the provisions of the Ward or Village Tract Administration Act of 2012 and the Penal Code is essential to make the use of forced labour a penal offence and dissuade the perpetrators. Moreover, the punishments should be adequate and strictly enforced.
• Article 359 of the Constitution remains unchanged despite earlier government promises – the article exempts from the prohibition of forced labour “duties assigned by the Union in accordance with the law in the interest of the public” and as such could be interpreted as a generalized exaction of forced labour from the population.
  We note that the discussion about the changes in the Constitution is ongoing in the Parliament of Myanmar and we hope the article 359 will be amended in the process. However, we are concerned that despite progress made in the last years on labour issues, we are now at a turning point. We therefore urge the Government to take the necessary measures, including further capacity building of various actors, clear instructions of the military not to rely on forced labour, proper investigation and sufficiently dissuasive sanctions and the finalization of the Action Plan on forced labour, which is currently drafted with support of the ILO, to address the Committee’s concerns without delay.
  While the elimination of forced labour is the focus of this discussion, we also urge the Government to take the necessary measures to:

• ensure that the current drafts of the Labour Organisation Law and the Settlement of Labour Dispute Law comply with International Labour Standards. While we note that latter law was adopted in May, albeit not yet fully assessed, we recognise some progress such as the elimination of sanctions of imprisonment, however we regret that it appears that several gaps remain, including regarding the non-coverage of the public sector. In addition, we have not yet seen the expected progress on the draft Labour Organisation Law; in fact the current draft – if adopted – would represent a step backwards. We urge the government to revise the draft in a tripartite manner and by using ILO technical assistance to bridge the current gaps to International Labour Standards.
• ratify ILO Convention 138 (minimum age); We note that the tripartite consensus was reached on the issue. We urge the government to swiftly ratify ILO Convention 138 as this will be a very important step to ratification of all five remaining fundamental ILO Conventions.
• align the current draft of the Child Rights law with international labour standards on child labour; we take note that it is going to be discussed during the current parliamentary session.
• adopt the already finalised list of hazardous jobs to effectively fight child labour
• implement measures - based on tripartite dialogue - to address issues that limit freedom of association in practice like the dismissal and discrimination of trade unionists and bureaucratic hurdles in the registration process.
• take effective measures to ensure that civil liberties of workers are ensured, including by revising the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law in line with the recommendations of ILO direct contact mission of October 2018. It remains particularly vital in view of charges put forward in February 2019 against trade unionists in Mandalay.
• take further steps to improve occupational safety and health; while we acknowledge the recent enactment of the law as a positive step forward, we urge the government to effectively implement the law and to regularly revise it in particular to further broaden the scope of the law.
  The EU and its Member States will continue to assist the government in this respect and we will continue to closely monitor the situation in the country.
  Thank you

[1] The Republic of North Macedonia and Albania continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.