Country: Myanmar

Group: Shan

Date Finalized: October 4, 2021

Team: Mason McNeel (lead), Hannah Goldman, Jocelyn Chen

Considered to be the largest minority ethnic group in Myanmar, the Shan people number about 5 million according to rough estimates (Minority Rights Group, 2015). They reside in Shan State, located on the Eastern edge of Myanmar bordering China, Laos, and Thailand. The Shan were once a dominant population with kingdoms throughout the Northern lands of Myanmar. However, in 1962 Myanmar’s majority ethnic group, the Burmese, took full control over the Shan (UNPO, n.d.; Minority Rights Group, 2015). In response, the Shan organized Shan State and established various resistance forces to demand succession from Burmese control. In 1995, the Myanmar government led a violent militarized response against the Shan resistance forces. Since then, the Myanmar government has enacted countless human rights violations on the Shan — arrests, torture, rape, executions, forced labor, destruction of property, and forced relocation (Human Rights Council, 2018; Minority Rights Group, 2015). An estimated 300,000 Shan have fled to Thailand to avoid such human rights violations, and an additional 100,000 live as internally displaced refugees within the Shan State (Human Rights Council, 2018; Minority Rights Group, 2015). The Shan and Myanmar governments have signed multiple ceasefires, but these have yet to be successful in preventing further violent clashes and human rights violations. Those that flee to Thailand do not experience  conditions that are much more favorable. Thailand does not grant refugee status to the Shan — preventing access to healthcare and allows the Thailand government to arrest and deport any Shan individual without cause (Suwanvanichkij, 2008).

The Myanmar government’s discriminatory actions are clearly forcing the Shan people away from their homes. With an abundance of well-researched information available regarding the Shan’s experience in Myanmar, the data is rated as a 3/3.

Sources

  1. Human Rights Council. (2018, September 12). Report of the independent international fact-finding mission on Myanmar. Retrieved from https://www.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?sourcedoc=/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/FFM-Myanmar/A_HRC_39_64.docx&action=default&DefaultItemOpen=1
  2. Minority Rights Group. 2015. Shan. (2015, June 19). Minority Rights Group. Retrieved from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/shan/ on …
  3. Suwanvanichkij, V. (2008). Displacement and disease: The Shan exodus and infectious disease implications for Thailand. Conflict and Health, 2(1), 4. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1186/1752-1505-2-4
  4. UNPO. n.d. Shan. (n.d.). Retrieved September 24, 2021, from https://unpo.org/members/20861