The Myanmar Parliament should repeal legal provisions that empower authorities to conduct warrantless searches of private homes and require all residents to register overnight houseguests with government officials, Fortify Rights said in a statement today.
The Amyotha Hluttaw—the Upper House of Parliament—is discussing a bill to amend the Ward or Village Tract Administration Law of 2012, which replaced two earlier laws enacted over a century ago. The law requires residents to inform government officials when visitors spend the night in their homes and to report personal data about those visitors. Authorities enforce the guest registration requirement through late-night raids, commonly known as “midnight inspections,” and have used the law to target low-income communities, individuals working with civil society organizations, and political activists.
Members of Parliament with the National League for Democracy (NLD) party introduced the bill to amend the law to bring it in line with human rights standards. Military-appointed MPs, who hold 25 percent of the seats in parliament, oppose changes to the law, arguing that the law is necessary to ensure “national security.”
“Guest registration and unwarranted searches have no place in a rights-respecting democracy,” said Matthew Smith, Executive Director of Fortify Rights. “These provisions infringe on basic human rights, making Myanmar less secure. Parliament should repeal these provisions once and for all.”
The law effectively requires all Myanmar residents to seek permission from the authorities to host overnight guests and puts information about who is sleeping where—and for how long—in the hands of government officials. The authorities have access to individual household data dating back decades, infringing on the right to privacy, Fortify Rights said.
