Nigeria Labour Congress condemns military coup in Myanmar

articles, once in Coahuila state’s penal code, and in Sinaloa’s constitution. It is now taking up the question of conscientious objection to abortion for medical professionals.Demonstratorsoutside the Supreme Court building held up banners, blue pro-life flags, Mexican flags, and images of the Our Lady of Guadalupe, and shouted slogans for life and against abortion.Doctors and leaders from pro-life organizations spoke at the event.Cortés noted that the rally outside the Supreme Court was attended by "many young people, and that fills us with hope.”Attendance was achieved despite the fact that the authorities tried to make it impossible for people to get there. People “were held back in various areas and not allowed to proceed toward our meeting point," he said.Physicians were there who told the crowd gathered in downtown Mexico City “that it is their duty, their Hippocratic Oath, which has been said for more than 25 centuries, that doctors are there to save lives, not take them away.”Elective abortion has been legal up to 12 weeks of pregnancy in Mexico City and the states of Hidalgo, Oaxaca, and Veracruz. In general, abortion is illegal in the rest of the country, but in most cases there are exceptions for rape and the life of the mother. The penalties and scope of the laws vary from state to state. On Sept. 7, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation invalidated several articles that protected life from conception in the penal code of the state of Coahuila, opening the door to legal abortion.The ruling is expected to have wide-ranging effects throughout Mexico.And the Supreme Court on Sept. 9 ruled against the protection of life from conception in the constitution of the state of Sinaloa. The decision invalidated an article that read that "the State protects the right to life from the moment an individual is conceived."The court began Sept. 13 discussing a challenge to the constitutionality of the right to conscientious objection by healthcare professionals, which could force them to participate in abortions against their will.In the initial decisions made in this session, the SCJN recognized the right to conscientious objection and noted that it does not restrict the right to health.

On February 1, 2021, General Min Aung Hlaing led the Myanmar military to stage a coup against the democratically elected government of Myanmar. The coup attracted global outrage and umbrage. Unfortunately, more than eight months after the coup, the military government in Myanmar continues to entrench itself and perpetuate a climate of rights violations in the country. The Nigeria Labour Congress, strongly condemned the military coup in Myanmar and we still condemn the sustained military rule in Myanmar as an aberration of the international democratic order. Since the military coup in Myanmar, more than 900 people have been killed, 5,000 civilians arrested and 300,000 workers dismissed for joining the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). Over 175,000 persons have been displaced. The coup and the third wave of Covid-19 have halved the income of 83% of the families, and more than 25 million people in Myanmar are now living in absolute poverty. We call on the Nigerian Government to take urgent action against the military coup to end the human rights catastrophe in Myanmar. Organized Labour in Nigeria fully supports the Civil

Disobedience Movement (CDM) and the trade union movement in Myanmar to end the military rule and restore the civilian government elected in November 2020. The international trade union movement is the global democratic force that first called on the international community to formally recognise the NUG of the Republic of Myanmar established on 16th April 2021 by the democratic parliamentarians elected in the 8th November 2020 elections. Workers, through the Confederation of Trade Unions of Myanmar (CTUM), supported the NUG’s tripartite delegation to the 109th International Labour Conference (ILC), which included U Maung Maung, President of the CTUM (Confederation of Trade Unions Myanmar) and member of the National Unity Consultative Committee (NUCC); the NUG consultative body; and Mrs Sandar Soe, CTUM general secretary, elected by the ILO Governing Body to represent the voices of the fighting people of Myanmar and the civilian democratic government they elected. The NUG, made up of all the ethnic representatives, is deliberating a new federal democratic constitution and amending the labour and citizenship laws. The NUG is committed to respecting the international obligations of Myanmar before the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court regarding the human rights violations of the Rohingya people. At the 109th ILC Conference, workers succeeded in blocking the military-led State Administration Council (SAC) from representing the State of Myanmar, in alignment with the interim decisions of the previous sessions of the UNGA, the World Health Conference and the 42nd Conference of the Food and Agricultural Organization. A decision will be reviewed again at the 76th UNGA in September. The SAC reacted with escalated military raids of trade union offices and more arrests, including most recently the arrest of Thet Hnin Aung, general secretary of the Myanmar Industry Craft and Service-Trade Unions’ Federation (MICS-TUsF), on 13th July 2021.