UN Human Rights Council maintains pressure on Sudan and Myanmar

Dec 15, 2007, 3:49 GMT

Geneva - The UN Human Rights Council agreed to send their special rapporteur back to Myanmar Friday to maintain pressure on the authorities over human rights and freedom of expression.

The Council, concluding its sixth session in Geneva, also voted to keep the post of special rapporteur to Sudan for another year, while disbanding the group of experts who were assigned to carry out a mission to the country in February.

They had accused the government of complicity in killings and rapes carried out by militia in Darfur.

The 47-strong member council agreed to end the group's mandate but retain the country-specific rapporteur despite pressure from African group members to do away with the role completely.

The Council president, the Romanian ambassador Doru Romulus Costea told a press conference: 'There have been positive developments at the level of the Sudanese authorities' but he added there had also been delays and actions proposed by the Council's experts had not been implemented or acted on for a variety of reasons.

The Council also agreed that the special rapporteur, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro should return to Myanmar for a second visit in a resolution drawn up by the EU group of countries. The council hoped he would visit as soon as possible and report back to the next scheduled session in March.

The resolution also called on the authorities to free any prisoners still detained following the military crackdown on the peaceful protests led by hundreds of monks in September.

Pinheiro visited the country in November. The Council president said that he had been allowed to visit in the first place was 'a positive step but not sufficient.'