ASIA/MYANMAR – Blasphemy laws undermine the rule of law

ASIA/MYANMAR – Blasphemy laws undermine the rule of law
Yangon (Agenzia Fides) – Anti blasphemy laws and legal actions are undermining the rule of law in Myanmar. The laws, stated in the country’s Criminal Code, “are contrary to human rights including freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of equality in front of the law without discrimination”, say activists of various different nongovernmental organisations. Furthermore the norms are applied arbitrarily and in a selective manner.
Burma’s blasphemy law, issued under colonial rule in 1927 to lessen intercommunity tension, is the same which exists in India and Pakistan (where it was later altered in 1986). The law affirms “any deliberate and criminally motivated intention to offend a person’s religious sentiments is punishable with imprisonment and a fine”.
However, in recent cases guilty sentences have been issued by courts without the proof of deliberate intention: individuals have been severely punished for actions seen to be “contrary to conservative interpretations of a religion”.
In 2015 in Myanmar, Philip Blackwood and his colleagues Tun Thurein and Htut Ko Ko Lwin, were given two and a half years of prison with forced labour for putting on Facebook social network a psychedelic image of Buddha wearing earphones, in order to advertise a coffee bar. Htin Linn Oo, Bhuddist writer and a member of the National Pro-Democracy League, was given two years of prison with forced labour for offending certain groups of Buddhists: he dared to doubt the authenticity of the creed of persons using Buddhism to incite to violence.
These measures – say Human Rights activists such as Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development - “violate international law and certain human rights recognised by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the Constitution del Myanmar, which guarantees freedom of expression and conscience and freedom to profess and practice a religion”. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 23/7/2015)