ND Burma
ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.
Recent Posts
- President Win Myint freed in broad Myanmar prisoner amnesty
- Rights Group Files Genocide Complaint Against Myanmar Junta Chief: Indonesian AG
- Releases‘Defying a Dictatorship’: An Overview of the Human Rights Situation in Burma
- Defying a Dictatorship
- Open Letter: The UNHRC Must Reject the Junta’s Sham Election Results to ConsolidateIllegitimate Rule and Advance Accountability
Flowers from Burma
/in Documentary“Growing poppies is not part of our traditional way of life. We grow them purely to support ourselves.” – Karenni farmer
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HTML Styles
/in Images, NewsImage aligned left & right
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AAPP and United States Campaign for Burma (2008) The Future in the Dark
/in ND-Burma Members' ReportsThe Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) (AAPP) and the U.S. Campaign for Burma (USCB), believe that an immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize Recipient Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and U Tin Oo, is an important and essential indicator to measure the positive development of the national reconciliation and democratization process in Burma (also known as Myanmar). Therefore, the people of Burma, the international community – especially the main bodies of the United Nations – and the leaders of the world have repeatedly and consistently demanded that the Burmese military regime release all political prisoners immediately and unconditionally. The regime has claimed repeatedly that there are no political prisoners in Burma and that courts convicted all those arrested and imprisoned for criminal acts.
Even so, the Burmese military regime at times purports to bow the international community’s demands in order to avoid international pressure. The regime claims that it has released tens of thousands of prisoners from various prisons as a special gesture to the United Nations. In reality, only a small number of political prisoners were included among those released. Recently, the regime announced that it released 9002 convicted prisoners from various prisons on 23 September 2008. However, in actuality only ten political prisoners were included among those released. U Win Htein, senior assistant to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was released on 23 September and rearrested the next day and put back in the Kathar Prison.
While the regime released only a small number of political prisoners, a large number of democracy activists have been arrested and imprisoned. Therefore, despite repeated requests from the international community, the number of political prisoners in Burma has steadily increased in the last six years, from between 1200 and 13005 in August 2003 to over 2123 in September 2008.
Download: The future in the dark AAPP/USCB (880kb)
Eastward Bound
/in ND-Burma Members' ReportsSummary of key findings
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AAPP (2005) The Darkness We See
/in ND-Burma Members' ReportsThere is an increased focus on the conditions for prisoners and others who are kept in detention in the world today and there are good reasons for that. The number of prisoners worldwide is increasing.
The bad news is that the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims again and again receives alarming reports describing torture in interrogation centres, places of detention and prisons.
The good news is that today we do have the international instruments that are needed to improve the conditions for detainees. There is a total prohibition of torture in the United Nations Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
The Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture provides the establishment of national as well as international visiting mechanism to monitor the conditions in detention places in each country.
It is beyond doubt that Burma will benefit from international visiting mechanisms, which comprise of independent doctors and other medical professionals amongst a multidisciplinary team. From this report it is evident that Burma must improve the prison conditions. The torture as described by former prisoners has been physical, psychological and sexual. The inhuman prison conditions give rise to disease and illness among the prisoners. The standard of the prison health care system amounts not only to ill-treatment but to torture.
Safe spaces for an ongoing dialogue are necessary and even a pre-requisite to fight against torture and cruel and inhuman or degrading treatment in places of detention and prisons. It is commendable that the authors of this report at the risk of their own lives have provided such a detailed analysis of the torture that has taken place in Burma. Documentation such as in this report is the very basis to inform our thinking about how best to promote change. It is a prerequisite for the prevention of torture as well as for the rehabilitation of torture victims.
Download: The darkness we see (680kb)
Driven Away: Trafficking of Kachin Women on the China-Burma Border
/in ND-Burma Members' ReportsAn alarming trend is developing in ethnic Kachin communities of Burma. Growing poverty, caused by failed state policies, is driving increasing numbers of young people to migrate in search of work. As a result, young women and girls are disappearing without trace, Read more