Myanmar and Human Rights assignment
The theme of this assignment is clearly linked to the topic of HDR 2000. Discussing the framework adopted by HDR 2000 could represent a useful starting point for the planning process of your team work. You might also find that making a schedule of what you would like to prepare and when might help you planning your team assignment as well as coordinating it with your individual assignments.
Note that a special challenge of this report would be to reflect on the type of process a UNDP country office would like to set up. How could you go about writing on politically sensitive areas? are there independent civil society groups who can be funded to write such a report ? how would you identify them? And what kind of information would you be willing to/could include?
The materials provided should enable you to gather information on the general situation of the country, as well as on the more specific human rights issues with which the assignment is concerned and the possibilities for action in this realm. The selection of materials covered does not aim however at being exhaustive, rather at providing you with pointers on the kind of issues discussed, the kind of actors involved, the processes taking place in the country.
You might use any other source of information from global reports and materials available in the reference unit to web resources to enrich your understanding of the different issues you chose to tackle. You might also want to visit QEH library or especially the Refugee Studies Program library in Little Clarendon Street (http://www.qeh.ox.ac.uk/rsp/indexrsp.html; please ask for directions if needed; note that closing time is 5:00 pm ). They have a vast selection of materials of the kind you are presented on Human Rights in Myanmar.
Remember also that you can do a search on ELDIS at http://www.eldis.org if you need more inspiration!
Please remember however to time your efforts appropriately. It is more important to deliver all the output you are required, even if based on a narrow informational basis whose shortfalls you might want to point to, than to collect vast amounts of new materials which you will not have the time to process.
Some useful HR links can be found at:
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/CDU/cideve.html#huma
