Ethnic Cleansing of the Rohingya: Obama’s Duty is ASEAN’s Shame

KUALA LUMPUR — With Barack Obama gracing the halls of Naypyidaw this week, the world has quite rightly been calling loudly for the President of the United States of America to raise concerns regarding the backslide in human rights and democracy in Myanmar, not least of which being the institutionalized persecution and ethnic cleansing of the country’s Rohingya minority. […]

Letter to President Obama

Dear President Obama,

We are writing on behalf of Kachin Society from Myanmar and abroad, composed of (27) organizations and networks.

We would like to welcome your administration’s courageous step in engaging with the Myanmar government, including your visit in 2012 and your delivery of the important speech at the University of Yangon. It resonates with us to this day. […]

Obama’s Chance to Make Burma a Genuine Foreign Policy Success

As President Obama prepares to make his second visit to Burma, it is worth looking back at the promises made to him by Burma’s President Thein Sein on his last visit in November 2012 and to assess the worth of these promises. Burma, after all, is largely seen as a foreign policy success by the current administration amid the mess of Ukraine, Libya and the threat of ISIS […]

Burma: Religious Freedom and Related Human Rights Violations are Hindering Broader Reforms

Executive Summary

The dramatic political developments in Burma in recent years are of historical and geopolitical significance. Bur-ma has progressed much further than most might have imagined possible only a few short years ago. Despite these achievements, Burma still has a long journey along the road to democracy and respect for human rights. Serious violations of religious freedom and human rights continue, accompanied by disturbing evidence of prejudice and intolerance, trends that will inevitably and dramatically impact the prospects for a brighter future. In short, the political reform process in Burma is at great risk of deteriorating if religious freedom and the right to equal treatment under the law are not honored and protected. […]

President Obama’s Burma Visit Offers Opportunity to Push for Improvement on Human Rights

NEW YORK – During his trip to Burma this week, President Obama should demand progress on a range of human rights issues, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said today […]

New Report Documents Recent Violent Conflict in Karen State

New Report Documents Recent Violent Conflict in Karen State
More than 2,000 villagers were displaced in October as fighting resumed in Karen State, the site of the world’s longest-running civil war. A report released today by Karen Rivers Watch (KRW) reveals that the outbreak of fighting – after two years of ceasefire negotiations […]

Burma: USCIRF Issues Report on Religious Freedom and Related Human Rights Violations

WASHINGTON, DC – On the eve of President Obama’s November 12-14 trip to Burma, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today released a new report, “Burma: Religious Freedom and Related Human Rights Violations are Hindering Broader Reforms.” The report and its recommendations reflect a USCIRF Commissioner-level visit to Burma in August 2014 by Commissioners M. Zuhdi Jasser and Eric P. Schwartz and two USCIRF staff. […]

Open Letter from Karen Human Rights Group to President Obama

The Karen Human Rights Group would like to call your attention to human rights violations that have resulted from the ongoing government military presence throughout Southeast Myanmar […]

Readout of the President’s Call to Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma

President Obama spoke by phone with Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma. President Obama and Aung San Suu Kyi discussed the status of Burma’s ongoing political and economic reforms and the need to ensure an inclusive and credible process for conducting the 2015 elections […]

Dispatches: A Scathing Verdict on Burma’s Stalled Reforms

A remarkable set of meetings took place this week in Rangoon, with more than 650 representatives from Burmese civil society groups gathering to discuss the status of the country’s reform process […]