The Burma Campaign UK today welcomed a new Early Day Motion on Burma tabled by members of All Party Parliamentary Group for Democracy in Burma (APPG Burma).
High profile MPs across all parties, including Nigel Evans MP, Ann Clywd MP, Alistair Carmichael MP, Michael Moore MP, Ed Davey MP, Peter Bottomley MP and Julie Morgan MP, today called for an investigation into crimes being committed by the military regime in Burma. An Early Day Motion (EDM) is a kind of parliamentary petition.
Members of the APPG Burma are concerned about widespread and systematic human rights abuses, including torture, forced displacement, sexual violence, extra-judicial killings and forced labour being perpetrated against the people of Burma by the military dictatorship. The Motion calls upon the British Government to urge the United Nations to establish a Commission of Inquiry into these crimes and to support the International Labour Organization referring the dictatorship’s use of forced labour to the International Court of Justice.
“It is very encouraging that many MPs from across party lines support this Motion, and are calling on the UK government to urge the UN to establish a Commission of Inquiry into crimes committed by the regime”, said Nang Seng, Campaigns Officer at Burma Campaign UK. “For many years, the UN has ignored its own evidence of widespread and systematic human rights violations in Burma. It is the time for the UN to take action”.
In May this year, Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic released a report about crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma. The report was commissioned by five of the world’s leading jurists and analyzed UN documents on human rights violations in Burma. The report found that human rights abuses in Burma are widespread, systematic, and part of state policy and suggests Burma’s military regime may be committing crimes against humanity and war crimes prosecutable under international law.
For more information please contact Nang Seng on 020 7324 4710
Early Day Motion: 238
That this House expresses grave concern at the escalating systematic human rights abuses being perpetrated against the people of Burma by the military dictatorship; notes that there is well documented evidence over many years of widespread torture, forced displacement, sexual violence, extra-judicial killings and forced labour and that civilians are deliberately targeted; further notes that these actions constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes; calls upon the British Government to urge the United Nations to establish a Commission of Inquiry into these crimes; and further calls on the British government to support the International Labour Organisation referring the dictatorships use of forced labour to the International Court of Justice.