Three weeks ago, in a pre-recorded video testimony for a US Congressional hearing, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi expressed her unequivocal support for a Commission of Inquiry into crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma. This is a very important development for the campaign and will hopefully encourage many more countries to support our collective call. Here are some more updates about the campaign.

Lobbying

Groups around the world have been busy working on this campaign in recent months. Lobbying efforts continue internationally with groups calling on governments to support the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry (CoI). A special focus has been placed on EU countries as the regional block is drafting the resolution for the United Nations General Assembly, in which groups are pushing for them to include some strong language calling for a CoI.

New Campaign Materials

Burma Partnership has produced a campaign flyer as well as a logo. Both of these can be used publicly by any organization working on this campaign and can be downloaded here.

Upcoming Letter Writing Campaign

We are currently preparing for a grassroots letter writing campaign, in which individual citizens and groups around the world can participate. Template letters to Foreign Ministers will be available shortly with more detailed information on how to participate. At the Civil Society Conference of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in May, we already collected over 300 signed letters addressed to FMs of ASEAN member countries. Please stay tuned for more information.

Support from the Thai-Border

In the past couple of months, Burma Partnership has also conducted several consultations with Burma groups along the Thai-Burma border, in order to seek their input and support for the campaign. There has been a lot of enthusiasm, with groups pledging to reach out to their communities to raise awareness about the campaign and our goals.

Endorsements

Thank you to all the organizations that have already officially endorsed the CoI campaign. The latest list of endorsing organizations is available here. We will continue to gather endorsements throughout the campaign, so do let us know if your organization would like to be included on the list. And of course, groups who haven’t endorsed are still welcome to participate in events and actions in this campaign.

You’ve received this message as part of a new listserv for groups around the world working on the CoI campaign. Please feel free to share updates from your organization or country on this list.

In Solidarity,

The Burma Partnership Secretariat