1. Former Chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child Lee Yang-hee (currently a professor at Sungkyunkwan University) of the ROK was appointed as Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar at an organizational meeting of the UN Human Rights Council on May 8. Professor Lee is the first Korean appointed as Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council since the Council was created in 2006.

2. The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar examines and evaluates the overall human rights situation in Myanmar and provides recommendations to improve the country’s human rights situation.

o The Special Rapporteur’s mandate is extended for one year at a Human Rights Council meeting held in March every year. (The Special Rapporteur can serve the maximum of six years.)

3. With the human rights situation in Myanmar at an important turning point, the international community’s expectations for the role of the Special Rapporteur are growing. The appointment of a Korean expert to the post against this backdrop is highly meaningful.

4. Special Rapporteur Lee is expected to play an important role in making a substantive progress on human rights in Myanmar by drawing on her expertise in human rights, accumulated during her activities as a member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child from 2003 to 2013, as well as the ROK’s experiences in economic and social development and democratization. 


                  Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations of MOFA

*unofficial translation