Myanmar’s parliament has passed controversial legislation championed by hardline Buddhist nationalists, raising fears authorities will have new tools to use against already marginalized minority groups.
Lawmakers said that parliament this week passed two proposed bills: one regulating religious conversions and the other an anti-polygamy bill.
Je Yaw Wu, a lawmaker in Myanmar’s Upper House, confirmed that parliament this week passed the legislation.
“The religious conversion bill is not necessary to enact the law in Myanmar as it is detrimental to the right of each citizen,” said Je Yaw Wu, a Catholic from Kachin state.
The government has not released full details of the legislation. However, rights groups believe the anti-conversion bill will make it more difficult for people to change religions, while the polygamy bill will attempt to criminalize extra-marital affairs.
The proposed legislation forms a package of four bills that activists say are thinly veiled attempts to curb the freedoms of minority religions — particularly Muslims in the Buddhist-majority country. These include restrictive laws on interfaith marriage and population control, which parliament has already passed.
Of the four, only the population control bill has become law, after Myanmar President Thein Sein signed off on the legislation in May. The bill stipulates mandatory “birth spacing” — the interval between women’s childbirths. Rights groups fear it could be used to selectively target specific minority groups.
Mann Johnny, a Lower House parliamentarian with the opposition National League for Democracy, said opposition lawmakers tried to debate the race and religion bills in parliament but were unable to change the outcome.
“Religious conversion depends on the belief and free will of the individual. So it is against human rights. And polygamy bills are also not necessary … as society in Myanmar has been practicing monogamy since many years ago,” Mann Johnny, a Catholic, told ucanews.com on Aug. 21.
The parliament’s move this week comes amid ongoing anti-Muslim tensions and three months before national elections scheduled for November.
Tensions are particularly strained in Rakhine state, where violence between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims has displaced tens of thousands of people — most of them Rohingya.
The United Nations and international rights group have called on the government to abolish the race and religion bills, saying they are discriminatory and are not in line with international standards.