US Campaign for Burma - FREE BURMA!

Reports, Parliamentary/Congressional Action, Statements


In March 2010, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Burma, Mr. Tomas Ojea Quintana released a 30-page report, in which he determined clear patterns of “systematic and gross human rights violations” are taking place in Burma. He went on to state that the “possibility exists that some of these human rights violations may entail categories of crimes against humanity or war crimes under the terms of the Statute of the International Criminal Court.” In conclusion, he recommended UN bodies initiate a Commission of Inquiry on Burma to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Governments and Burma activists around the world have widely welcomed Mr. Quintana’s recommendations and his sharp and accurate assessment of the situation in Burma. Democratic governments such as the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Czech Republic,  Slovakia, Canada, Netherlands, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Estonia, France, Belgium, Denmark and Latvia have voiced their support for the UN to establish a Commission of Inquiry on Burma.

For years, Burma activists and NGOs around the world have echoed similar concerns and have repeatedly called for a concrete UN action on Burma. In May 2009, The Harvard School of Law’s International Human Rights Law Clinic published a report entitled Crimes in Burma. The report examined documentation of grave violations of human rights in eastern Burma and showed that these violations are not isolated incidents but are widespread, systematic happening in a climate of impunity. It concluded that the continuing repression and persecution in Burma constitute a threat to international peace and security and warrant a UN Commission of Inquiry . Failure by the UN  to take action and to investigate these crimes will mean that violations of international crimes can go unchecked, not just in Burma but anywhere in the world.

The following are reports, parliamentary action, statements, and press releases from leaders around the world, calling for the UN to take concrete action on Burma and bring an end to the impunity that has plagued the country for decades.

Reports

UN Reports

- Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Burma (March 7, 2012) 

- Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Burma (Oct, 2011)

- Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burma to the Human Rights Council’s 16th Session in Geneva (March, 2011)

- UN General Assembly Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Burma (Oct, 2010)

- Progress Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar (Mr Quintana, March 2010)

Legal Analysis

- Burma’s NHRC: An Empty Gesture (Burma Partnership, Jan 2012)

- Revealing Burma’s System of Impunity (Burma Lawyer’s Council Sept 2011)

- Crimes in Burma (Harvard Law Clinic, May 2009)

- Campaign to end impunity in Burma – Advocacy Toolkit (Burma Lawyers Council, Jan 2010)

-Impunity Prolonged Briefing: Burma and its 2008 Constitution (International Center for Transitional Justice, Oct 2009)
For English version, click here.
For Burmese version, click here.

- Impunity Prolonged: Burma and its 2008 Constitution (International Center for Transitional Justice, Sept 2009)
For English version, click here.
For Burmese version, click here

- Internal Displacement and International Law in Eastern Burma (Thai Burma Border Consortium, Oct 2008)

- Crimes Against Humanity in Eastern Myanmar (Amnesty International, Jun 2008)

- Burma and UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (Global Justice Center)

Documentation of Crimes

- Human Rights Situation in Burma – March 2011 to March 2012 (Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma May 2012) 

- Abuses since the DKBA and KNLA ceasefires:Forced labour and arbitrary detention in Dooplaya (Karen Human Rights Group May 2012)

- “Untold Miseries”: Wartime Abuses and Forced Displacement in Burma’s Kachin State (Human Rights Watch March 2012)

- The use of Rape as a Weapon of War in Burma’s Ethnic Areas (Info Birmanie and Swedish Burma Committee March 2012) 

- All the information I’ve given you, I faced it myself: Rural testimony on abuse in eastern Burma since November 2010 (Karen Human Rights Group Dec 2011)

- Under Siege in Kachin State, Burma (Physicians for Human Rights November 2011)

- Crimes in Northern Burma: Results from a Fact-Finding Mission to Kachin State (Partners Relief and Development Nov 2011)

- Report on the Human Rights Situation in Burma – January to September 2011 (Network for Human Rights Documentation-Burma Nov 2011)

- Burma’s Covered Up War: Atrocities Against the Kachin People (Kachin Women’s Association Thailand Oct 2011)

- Dead Men Walking: Convict Porters on the Front Lines in Eastern Burma (Human Rights Watch July 2011)

- Report on the Human Rights Situation in Burma (Network for Human Rights Documentation-Burma May 2011)

- CRC Shadow Report Burma: The Plight of Children Under Military Rule in Burma (Child Rights Forum of Burma April 2011)

- Life Under the Junta: Evidence of Crimes Against Humanity in Burma’s Chin State (Physicians for Human Rights, Jan 2011)

- Protracted Displacement and Chronic Poverty in Eastern Burma/ Myanmar (TBBC, Oct 2010)

- Trafficking in Persons Report 2010 – Burma (US Department of State, Jun 2010)

- Crimes Against Humanity in Western Burma: The situation of the Rohingyas (NUI Galway, Jun 2010)

- Displaced Childhoods (Partners Relief & Development, Free Burma Rangers, Apr 2010)

- Stateless and Starving (Physicians for Human Rights, Mar 2010)

- Walking Amongst Sharp Knives (Karen Women Organization, Feb 2010)

- Visit to the Thailand-Burma Border (Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Feb 2010)

- 2,100 Displaced, Villages Burned, Schools Abandoned as Seven Burma Army Battalions Attack (Free Burma Rangers, Feb 2010)

- Update of Burma Army Attacks, Murders, Displacement and Forced Labor in Karen State, Burma (Free Burma Rangers, Jan 2010)

- Poisoned Hills (Palaung Women’s Organization, Jan 2010)

- International Crimes Committed in Burma: The Urgent Need for a Commission of Inquiry (Altsean & International Federation for Human Rights & Burma Lawyers’ Council, Aug 2009)

- Reflections on CEDAW 2008 (Women League of Burma, Jan 2009)

- We are like forgotten people (Human Rights Watch, Jan 2009)

- CEDAW Shadow Report (Women of Burma, 2008)

- High-Resolution Satellite Imagery and the Conflict in Eastern Burma (American Association for the Advancement of Science, Sept 2007)

- A position paper for the sixth anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325 (Women League of Burma, Oct 2006)

- Driven Away – Trafficking of Kachin women on the China-Burma border (Kachin Women’s Association Thailand, 2005)

- Shattering Silences (Karen Women’s Organization, Apr 2004)

- License to Rape (Shan Women’s Action Network, May 2002)
Parliamentary/ Congressional Action

The United States

- Senate Women’s Caucus on Burma sends letter to Secretary Clinton to take action to end rape as a weapon of war (August 2011)

- Senate Concurrent Resolution 12 (April, 2011)

- Letter from U.S. Representatives to President Obama to take the lead on UN-led Commission of Inquiry (April 2011)

- Letter from U.S Senators to Secretary Clinton (July 2010)

- House Resolution 898 (Current)

- Letter from Members of U.S. Congress to President Obama (June 2009)

The United Kingdom

- Early Day Motion 238 (Nov 2009)

- Conservative Party supports Commission of Inquiry into crimes against humanity (Aug 2009)

- Early Day Motion 1336 (Apr 2009)

Global

- Letter to Ban Ki-Moon and PM Harper (Canadian Parliamentary Friends of Burma, Oct 2009)

- 442 Global Members of Parliament Letter(Dec 2009)
Statements & Letters to World Leaders
- Resettled Ethnic Refugees in the U.S. Call for Greater Action to End Systematic Human Rights Abuses against Ethnic People in Burma (March 22, 2012)

- Secretary Clinton Urged to Prioritize Securing An End to Burmese Army’s Crimes against Humanity by 12 Human Rights Organizations and One Individual in the United States (Nov 28, 2011)

- Americans Demand President Obama Show Global Leadership in Ending Crimes against Humanity in Burma (Sept 26, 2011)

- President Obama Urged to Take Action on Burma by 22 Human Rights Organizations and One Individual in the United States (July 8, 2011)

-Statement of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Mr. Tomas Ojea Quintana (May 23, 2011)

-Letter to Secretary Clinton from 13 NGOs to lead the efforts for a UN-led Commission of Inquiry (April, 2011)

-Feinstein, Gregg, and 30 Senators Urge the Obama Administration to Support UN Commission of Inquiry to Investigate Possible War Crimes in Burma (July, 2010)

- Letter to Heads of States of the Group of Friends of Myanmar at the UN (Indian Parliamentarian’s Forum for Democracy in Burma, June 2010)

- CSW renews calls for UN inquiry into Burma’s crimes against humanity on Aung San Suu Kyi’s 65th birthday (Christian Solidarity Worldwide, June 2010)

- The Elders Keep an Empty Chair for Aung San Suu Kyi (The Elders, June 2010)

- International Tribunal on Burma Calls for an End to Impunity of Military Regime (Mar 2010)

- International Women’s Day Statement (Women League of Burma, Mar 2010)

- 14 Nobel Laureates Press UN Security Council on Burma (Aug 2009)

- Women World Wide together with WLB call for UNSC Actions on Burma (Women’s League of Burma, Aug 2009)

- Letter to President of the Republic of France (Women League of Burma, Aug 2008)

- Letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and members of the UN Security Council (Aug 2009)

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