Consultation Held on the Discrimination and Business in Myanmar Briefing Paper

On 9th June 2017, MCRB held a consultation in Yangon to receive feedback and engage in discussion on the draft Discrimination and Business in Myanmar Briefing paper.

The consultation was attended by over 50 people, representing a wide range of stakeholders including business, NGOs, and independent researchers working on women rights issues and religious minorities rights issues, ethnic minorities organisations, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) organisations, and people living with disabilities (PWD) organisations and UNAIDs working on rights of people with HIV.

The participants discussed how it is important for businesses to understand the nature of discrimination in Myanmar and its relation to business activities and how to prevent and address discrimination in recruitment process and at workplace. In addition to support for the main elements of the paper, participants highlighted the following:

• Stereotypes of minorities groups such as women, religious minorities, ethnic minorities, LGBT, PWDs and People with HIV  ingrained in wider society and how the role of advertising and the media reinforce such stereotypes and the need to raise more awareness

• Various forms of sexual harassment at workplace and lack of adequate grievance mechanism

• Exclusion of PWDs from the main stream society and at workplace due to physical and social barriers such as transportation, lack of adjustments at workplace, discriminatory attitudes and lack of access to education

• PWD registration is needed based on disability categories and to adopt a PWD inclusive approach

Read also

• Briefing Paper on Discrimination by Business and in the Workplace in Myanmar

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