Access to Courts in Myanmar

[vivek...@justicebase.org]

Dear Myanmar Law Group,

I am very excited to share with you Justice Base's report, entitled "Behind Closed Doors: Obstacles and Opportunities for Access to Myanmar's Courts."  The report details the findings of four Myanmar researchers who attempted to access court premises and courtrooms in Yangon Region during June and July last year.  

The researchers visited 36 of Yangon’s 50 courts and attempted to enter and remain inside 119 courtrooms. As explored in greater detail in the report, they faced a number of barriers, including invasive questioning by police officers and judges and the requirements that they provide personal information or establish a personal connection to an ongoing hearing prior to entry. 

We would love to receive your thoughts and comments, and hope we can work with many of you on addressing this and other important issues related to access to justice in Myanmar.

Also, be sure to check out the op-ed featured in this week's Frontier Myanmar, calling for greater access to courts in Myanmar based on finding in this report. 

All the best,

Vivek Kumar

Executive Director

Justice Base

[Michael OKane]

Sounds like federal court in Miami.

[Janelle Saffin]

Dear All,

The first time I visited a court was in Rangoon in about 1999. I gave
my passport to the guard and then went in and let the judge know I was a
lawyer and interested in how the courts worked. He welcomed me to the
court and I stayed for ages. I met many lawyers and got photos taken
and then the they escorted me to the roof to get the river views.
People were surprised but welcoming.

I wrote a short piece about it and said it was like stepping back about
forty years, but the issues before the court were the same as most
places, petty crime, DV, debts, etc....but no notes taken, tea monies
clearly exchanged, lawyers far too busy, clients not really satisfied
nor understanding all.

Regards
Janelle

On 21-06-2017 05:13, Michael OKane wrote:
> Sounds like federal court in Miami.
>
> On Thursday, June 8, 2017 at 5:34:01 PM UTC-4,
> vivek...@justicebase.org wrote:
>
>> Dear Myanmar Law Group,
>>
>> I am very excited to share with you Justice Base's report, entitled
>> "Behind Closed Doors: Obstacles and Opportunities for Access to

>> Myanmar's Courts [1]." The report details the findings of four

>> Myanmar researchers who attempted to access court premises and
>> courtrooms in Yangon Region during June and July last year.
>>
>> The researchers visited 36 of Yangon’s 50 courts and attempted to
>> enter and remain inside 119 courtrooms. As explored in greater
>> detail in the report, they faced a number of barriers, including
>> invasive questioning by police officers and judges and the
>> requirements that they provide personal information or establish a
>> personal connection to an ongoing hearing prior to entry.
>>
>> We would love to receive your thoughts and comments, and hope we can
>> work with many of you on addressing this and other important issues
>> related to access to justice in Myanmar.
>>

>> Also, be sure to check out the op-ed [2] featured in this week's

>> Frontier Myanmar, calling for greater access to courts in Myanmar
>> based on finding in this report.
>>
>> All the best,
>>
>> Vivek Kumar
>>

>> EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
>> JUSTICE BASE
>
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> Links:
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> [1] http://justicebase.org/?page_id=44
> [2]
> http://frontiermyanmar.net/en/myanmars-courts-must-be-open-to-the-public

[christoph...@gmail.com]

Many thanks dear Janelle. If it's of any value for comparisons, I attended
a murder trial in 1987. I was the Australian Ambassador at the time but I
went to the trial just to see how they're conducted - the defendant wasn't
an Australian but I knew the defence lawyer. I tried to be there as a
member of the public, but as you can imagine things didn't really work out
that way and the court staff went out of their way to make me comfortable.

My experience was that the courtroom was dusty and grubby but the judges did
their best to look like judges and endow the proceedings with some
formality. The proceedings were conducted with some formality too and
ultimately the accused was acquitted. I wondered if this was surprising,
given the presumption that nobody should dare contradict police testimony
and the answer was that while the presumption was not without validity a
good lawyer could sometimes get clients past that hurdle.

It was in a district court outside Rangoon.

All the best

Chris

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[Judith Beyer]

At one point, I was corresponding with the late Andrew Huxley about the old Supreme/High Court building as well as the Kempinski-to-be on Strand Road, and he wrote, in effect, that when he had been in Yangon, he would have been arrested gor going near either.

[christoph...@gmail.com]

Dear Judith,

That seems odd to me. The Australia Myanmar Institute is involved in a plan
to revive the clocktower, clock and bell in the Court building and we have
had no difficulty at all in gaining access to the building and its innards.
The only issue was the perfectly reasonable question of access without an
accompanying engineer to parts of the clocktower which are in danger of
potential collapse. We've been engaged with this since 2012 and its sad
that Andrew Huxley passed away before he could have known of this.

I wonder if any of his correspondence to you might be useful to this
project, which is also of course about the history of the building.

All the best

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: Judith Beyer
Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2017 15:33
To: Myanmar Law
Subject: Re: Access to Courts in Myanmar

[Janelle Saffin]

I can imagine how you were treated Chris, and what a nice story,

Regards

Janelle Saffin

Australian mobile 0418664001 or +61418664001

((If your email is about a legal matter please direct it to jan...@gslawyers.com.au and if urgent please ring me on 0418664001))

 

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Links:
------
[1] http://justicebase.org/?page_id=44
[2] http://frontiermyanmar.net/en/myanmars-courts-must-be-open-to-the-public

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[Janelle Saffin]

I got inside the perimeter of it and chatted with the officials about
it, again in the late 90's. I have some photos of it somewhere.
I used to walk past it frequently.