Webinar

DIIS Event

Myanmar: law, justice and policing under the military coup

How is the law and the justice system employed by the military junta? And what are the aspirations for justice in the popular resistance to the coup?

Watch the recording here
 

In the resistance to the military coup in Myanmar, protesters frequently hoist placards reading ‘we want justice’ and ‘justice for Myanmar’. Demands for justice sit alongside calls for democracy and an end to decades of military dominance in Myanmar politics, which has also extended to the official justice system – the courts and the police. With the increasingly violent crackdowns and arbitrary arrests of civilians by the security forces, it has become clear that the courts and the police are with few exceptions ready to compromise with the rule of law and citizen rights to follow the army’s commands.

Even before the coup, the official justice system was largely associated with injustice and mistrusted by ordinary citizens, who predominantly preferred to access justice through informal and customary systems. This mistrust can be expected to have grown substantially since the coup, reflecting a strong divergence between popular demands for justice and how the official, military-controlled judiciary is enforcing law. 

Since the coup on 1 February the military has used a legal discourse and employed notions of law and order in their justifications for the coup and the crackdowns on civilian resistance. How is this playing out, and how are we to understand this usage in the present situation and through a historical lens? And are there people within the judiciary and the police who are ready to oppose the military junta, and in what ways may this affect the resistance more broadly? Another set of important questions regards how justice is understood and articulated among ordinary citizens who oppose the coup? How does the struggle against the military’s injustices feed into revolutionary aspirations for a new federal democracy and how do people imagine an alternative justice system? What form of transitional justice would be desirable in Myanmar in the long run? 

These questions will be discussed by Myanmar experts on law, justice, and policing at this webinar co-organised by the Danish Institute for International Studies and Oxford University as part of the Thanakha International Webinar Series Burma/ Myanmar.

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Speakers
Dr. Nick Cheesman, Fellow, Australian National University 
Professor Melissa Crouch, University of New South Wales
Myat Thet Thitsar, Director, Enlightened Myanmar Research Foundation (EMReF)
Dr. Khin Mar Mar Kyi, Oxford University 
Dr. Helene Maria Kyed, Senior Researcher, DIIS

Programme
09.30-09.40   Welcome and introduction, Khin Mar Mar Kyi and Helene Maria Kyed
09.40-09.50   The military’s use of law – present and past, Nick Cheesman
09.50-10.00   The justice system – how courts and justice officials operate under the coup, Melissa Crouch
10.00-10.10   The police – violence, desertions and tacit defiance, Helene Maria Kyed
10.10-10.20   The anti-coup resistance – aspirations for justice and a new democracy, Myat Thet Thitsar

10.20-11.00   Q&A session - moderated by Khin Mar Mar Kyi
    
Practical information
The webinar will be held in English. 
Participation is free of charge, but registration is required. 
Find the recording afterwards on this page.

Recorded on Tuesday 22 June 2021, 9:30-11:00 CET

Regioner
Myanmar

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22 June 2021 09:30–11:00

DIIS Experts

Helene Maria Kyed
Peace and violence
Senior Researcher
+45 4096 3309