Burma Campaign UK meets MP from Burma at British Parliament
BCUK at the British Parliament in a meeting with MP from Burma Susanna Hla Hla Soe and the Rt Hon John Bercow MP, Speaker of the House of Commons.
Muslim civilians ‘killed by Burmese army’ – BBC News
BBC News reports that pressure is growing on Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi to investigate claims that the Burmese army has been abusing Muslim civilians. Four weeks ago militants from the Rohingya Muslim minority killed nine policemen. Since then the army has shut down the area, and reports have followed of extra-judicial killings and the rape of Rohingya women.
Burma Campaign team meet Andy Hall
Burma Campaign UK team with Andy Hall, a Human rights defender working for the rights of migrants in Thailand, including migrants from Burma. The Supreme Court of Thailand has finally dismissed a criminal defamation case against Andy Hall after almost 4 years.
Read more on the campaign to drop the charges against Andy Hall.
New UN effort to protect refugees doesn’t help internally displaced persons
Mark Farmaner, Director at Burma Campaign UK, commented on the New York Declaration to Radio Free Asia:
“The declaration has welcome aspirations but no mechanisms for monitoring and implementation,” he told RFA.
“There should be a binding convention on the rights and treatment of IDPs, with monitoring and public annual reports naming and shaming countries which don’t comply, including those who haven’t signed the convention,” Farmaner said.
Zoya Phan speaks at Oxford International Relations Society
Burma Campaign UK’s Zoya Phan with students at Oxford International Relations Society after a discussion on human rights in Burma at Oxford University.
Calls mount for EU resolution on Myanmar rights at UNGA
Our call for the EU to continue the UN General Assembly resolution on human rights in Burma is covered by the Myanmar Times:
Pressure is growing on the European Union to again table a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution critical of Myanmar’s human rights record, after the EU signalled last week that the 28-nation bloc was dropping the motion for the first time in a quarter century.
“Only one of the 17 different calls for action to improve human rights made in last year’s resolution has been met,” the European Burma Network, a coalition of nine groups across six European countries, said in a statement yesterday.
Mark Farmaner joins calls for tough line on human rights at UN
Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, joined calls for maintaining a tough line on human rights at the UN General Assembly.
“Discontinuing the resolution will encourage the military to believe they can continue to commit human rights violations and block constitutional reform without any consequences,” he told The Myanmar Times.
One prisoner of conscience is one too many
Business community pins sanction hopes on State Counsellor’s visit to US
This article in Myanmar Times quotes Zoya Phan, Campaigns Manager at Burma Campaign UK:
“The US imposed sanctions in response to human rights violations, and they are still taking place,” Zoya Phan, a political activist from the Burma Campaign UK, told The Myanmar Times. “Lifting sanctions will just encourage the Myanmar military to think they can keep committing human rights abuses and keep blocking constitutional reform and get away with it,” she said.
At the TUC
At the TUC working with our trade union brothers and sisters in solidarity on human rights abuses in Burma.
