The by-law to protect the right of the ethnic minorities would be approved as it has been going on in cooperation, said Saw Aung Myint Khaing, Minister for the Karen Ethnic Affairs of the Mon state government on 2 February.
A workshop responsible for drafting rules that protect the rights of ethnic minorities was held on January 31 and February 1, debating the facts for the by-law in order to approve the regulation at Royal President Hotel in Nay Pyi Taw. In the workshop, 29 ministers for the ethnic affairs took part together with the personnel from the ethnic affairs ministry, Saw Aung Myint Khaing told KIC.
“We’re going on discussion about the by-law. Currently, it’s just a draft. We need to discuss repeatedly on this draft. We’re trying to approve it in April,” he told KIC.
State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi addressed the workshop responsible for drafting rules that protect the rights of ethnic minorities, stressing the important role of the majority in protecting rights of the minorities, held in Nay Pyi Taw on 1st February. If one wants to enjoy his rights, one must need to be careful of one’s responsibilities. Regarding the value of rights equally to responsibilities will help making progress of a society.
“In protecting the rights of national ethnics, you also need to be careful about responsibility. If anyone wants rights, they are required to accept responsibility,” State Counsellor also said.
The By-law protecting the rights of ethnic minorities consists of 9 chapters. The protection of minorities’ rights and establishing of a law court for dispute will be mentioned in chapter 2 and 3 respectively. The protection of the rights will be in chapter 4 and addressing the dispute in chapter 5. The implementation of the decisions will be in chapter 6, the prohibitions in chapter 7 and respective actions will be mentioned in chapter 8. The chapter 9 will be presented general regulations.
The Law on protecting the rights of ethnic minorities has been approved in 2015 and the Union Ministry for Ethnic Affairs has been formed by the new Government in April 2016 in accordance with that law. In addition, the Union Ethnic Affairs Ministry has been going on to endorse the correlated by-law in April.
Translated by Zin Linn for BNI
