Myanmar at the HLP Crossroads: - Displacement Solutions

Myanmar at the HLP Crossroads 185 Concrete Recommendations forImproving HLP Rights in MyanmarMyanmar thus stands at an HLP crossroads today. The HLP choices it makes in the coming months in line withthe President’s avowed efforts to develop the nation and improve people’s welfare will be highly influential in determiningthe country’s HLP future. Will Myanmar face the tumult, inequities and highly unfortunate HLP outcomessuffered by so many other nations in transition, or will Myanmar chart an HLP path which ushers in a truly new HLPdawn whereby every one of the country’s 60 million citizens can – as rapidly as possible – enjoy growing securityof tenure, continuously improving housing and living conditions, ever greater access to clean water and consistentsupplies of electricity, and ultimately all of the HLP rights promised to citizens everywhere under human rights lawand international best practices?Myanmar can become a global leader and model new and improved approaches to HLP rights, but to do so willrequire both great skill and wisdom. It is clear that there is a strong interest, at least on the part of the Presidentand other influential voices within Government, in having the Government distance itself from the HLP practices ofthe past, and to be increasingly associated with international best practices. This is a solid basis for building the lawsand institutions required to enable the country to be the first transitional nation in the past quarter century to treatthe HLP sector with the importance it needs to be accorded through concerted public interventions that reduce theworst HLP excesses and promote solution-oriented measures that best serve the majority of people. It can provethat it is possible to get it right on HLP rights through legal and policy approaches that enable everyone to benefit;an approach where fair and equitable polices and laws relating to ownership, control, use and transfer of land prevail;an approach where, far from being a source of daily hardship, housing, land and property resources become thesource of true economic and social justice, liberation and progressive change; an approach where equality andjustice are the organising credos of policy-makers within the HLP domain; and an approach that is sufficientlybacked at the highest levels, so that once in place, it simply cannot be reversed.There is a clear realisation within Government that it will need to address human settlement requirements and findnew ways of securing land for the considerable landless population, that peace agreements need to be concludedwith all armed groups in the ethnic states and that the way by which the country deals with HLP challenges mustgenerally be modernised. There is now a palpable sense of hope in the country that a new dawn has come and thatsubstantial improvements can be made within the HLP sectors. But what measures can be undertaken, startingtoday, to build the structures and perspectives required to ensure that the horrible HLP errors so commonplace inother countries are not repeated in Myanmar? On the basis of this analysis, this report concludes with four specificrecommendations that, if implemented by Government in partnership with civil society, will greatly assist in improvingthe HLP prospects of everyone in Myanmar:5.1 RECOMMENDATION 1:CONVENE A NATIONAL HLP SUMMIT IN THE IMMEDIATE TERMThe central importance of the HLP sector to the present and future economic, social and political evolution inMyanmar demands that new, transparent and democratic means be found to address these serious challenges.An excellent place to start the process of developing Myanmar-based HLP solutions would be the promptconvening of a multi-stakeholder National HLP Summit, jointly hosted by Government, civil society actorsand the UN.The widest possible cross-section of actors should be invited to such a Summit. The Summit should be organizedby a still to be formed HLP Steering Group comprised of government, the UN and civil society.