3 March, 2021
To: Member and Observer States of the UN Human Rights Council
Subject: Joint Open Letter From Myanmar Civil Society Organizations to the UN Human Rights Council to Request the Security Council to Protect the Peoples of Myanmar
Your Excellencies,
We, the undersigned Myanmar Civil Society Organizations, call on the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) Member and Observer States to pass a resolution that calls on the UN Security Council to immediately send an intervention and monitoring mission to Myanmar to end violence and use of lethal force against peaceful protesters by the Myanmar military junta, prevent further bloodshed and loss of life, and release all of those arbitrarily detained.
Since 1 February, at least 30 people have been killed and many others have been seriously injured at the hands of security forces ordered to inflict harm on peaceful protesters exercising their fundamental freedoms of assembly, expression and association. In a letter dated 24 February, 2021, over 400 CSOs from Myanmar supported by over 50 CSOs called on the UN Security Council to immediately dispatch an enhanced monitoring and intervention mission to Myanmar and to urgently impose a coordinated global arms embargo on Myanmar.
It is of the utmost importance that the UN Security Council responds through a series of swift measures to end the ongoing violence. The HRC established UN International Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar has concluded that there is credible evidence that the Myanmar military has committed grave human rights violations, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity – this is the same military that has illegally seized power. In recent weeks, we have witnessed a serious escalation in the ferocity of violence and intimidation against peoples of Myanmar by an illegitimate military junta.
- Since 1 February when the Myanmar military seized power in an illegitimate and unlawful power grab, police with the support of soldiers have used excessive force and lethal weapons against peaceful protesters and bystanders, including beatings, rubber bullets, water cannons, stun grenades, tear gas and live ammunition.
- On 28 February, at least 18 people have been killed and more than 30 wounded in coordinated crackdowns throughout Myanmar. Scenes of people being brutally gunned down in the streets, while trying to flee from advancing police and military shootings have become all too common.
- On 20 February, two people were killed, and dozens were injured when police, with support from soldiers, fired live ammunition into the dockworkers protesting at the Yadanarbon shipyard in Mandalay. At least one sniper from Light Infantry Division 33 – a shock unit deployed in ethnic regions that has historically inflicted brutal violence – was photographed on the streets at the place and time of the incident. Photos and videos of innocent bleeding protesters, dying in the streets, are placing an emotional strain on the people.
- On February 9, Ma Mya Thwaet Thwaet Khaing, a 19-year old female student was shot in the head by police in Naypyidaw, later died in hospital as a result of this incident on 19 February 2021.
- Journalists and media reporting on the peaceful protests are facing intimidation and threats as well as arbitrary arrests, assault and physical surveillance.
- Since the early hours of 14 February, the Internet has been cut off every night between 1am and 9am, and a blanket ban on social media persists. In addition, the military has added other draconian restrictions by enacting and amending series of laws related to cyber security.
- There has been a significant increase in the presence of army tanks and soldiers in the streets of major cities, including Yangon.
- Protesters, especially civil servants and public-sector workers who join the Civil Disobedience Movement, continue to be arrested at night. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a total of 1213 people have been arrested, charged or sentenced in relation to the military coup as of 1 March. The whereabouts of many of those arrested and the conditions of confinement are unknown.
These acts of extreme violence and general insecurity is extremely worrying. Many have died in pursuit of genuine federal democracy and we call on the HRC to support and amplify the voices of those on the ground calling for democracy, peace and justice.
Therefore, it is with great urgency that we call on the UN Human Rights Council to pass a resolution that:
- Urges the UN Security Council to:
- Immediately dispatch an enhanced monitoring and intervention mission to Myanmar to stop the violence being inflicted against peaceful protesters, prevent further bloodshed and loss of life and release all those arbitrarily detained;
- Impose targeted sanctions on military leaders, military-linked businesses and its partners; and,
- Impose a coordinated, global arms embargo on Myanmar.
- Mandates the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to follow up on the findings and recommendations of the reports and papers of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, and, in particular as a follow up to its conference paper on the economic interests, to present a comprehensive report on the implementation of its findings and recommendations at the 51st session of the Council.
In addition, we call on the UN Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council to call on Myanmar military regime takes the following actions:
- Immediately and unconditionally release all those who have been arbitrarily detained;
- Immediately end the use of violence and excessive force, unlawful use of water cannons, tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets and use of live ammunition against protesters, and cease all arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances;
- Respect people’s rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and right to privacy, including by ensuring that the public and protesters have unfettered Internet access, and lift all restrictions on access to social media platforms, VPN as well as media sites and refrain from imposing further restrictions against use of Internet;
- End all violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, especially in ethnic and ceasefire areas, and ensure that all civilians are protected, including by lifting all barriers to humanitarian assistance and ensuring the non-interference of aid to ethnic areas; and,
- Immediately halt all ongoing military offensives in ethnic areas.
We further call on the UN Human Rights Council, all UN agencies and the international community to support Myanmar to achieve a roadmap that establishes a federal democratic union, ensuring a long-term sustainable peace, ethnic equality, and protection of human rights of all peoples, and implement constitutional change that is in line with the will of the people.
Our lives may depend on your concerted action.
Please accept the assurance of our highest consideration.
Signed by 452 civil society organizations:
- A Lin Pya Kyal
- A Lin Tan
- A Lin Thi Tan
- A Nar Gatt Thit Group
- Action Group for Farmers Affair (စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်း)
- Action Group for Farmers Affair (ပဲခူးတိုင်း)
- Action Group for Farmers Affair (မကွေးတိုင်း)
- Action Group for Farmers Affair (မန္တလေးတိုင်း)
- Action Group for Farmers Affair (ဧရာဝတီတိုင်း)
- Action Committee for Democracy Development
- Ahlin Tagar Rural Development Organization
- Alinsaetamarn Library & Resource Center
- Alinthitsar Environmental and Development Group
- Alinyaungpandaing Environmental and Development Group
- All Arakan Students’ and Youths’ Congress
- Andin Mon Youth group
- Anin Region Environmental Conservation Group
- Ann Township Pipeline Monitoring Group
- Area Peace and Development Forward
- Arr Marn Thit Social Development Organization
- Arr Thit Yaung Chi
- Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
- Association of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters
- Association, Washington state
- Athan – Freedom of Expression Activist Organization
- Ayeyarwaddy West Development Organization (Minhla)
- Ayeyarwaddy West Development Organization (Ngaphae)
- AYY Farmer Union
- Ayyar Pyo May Women Development Organization
- Ba Ann Media Group
- Backpack Health Workers Team
- Burmese Ethics families and Burma /Myanmar student
- Burmese Democratic Force (USA)
- Banmaw Youth Network
- Basic Lawyer Network
- Bawdi Youth (Ethnic Youth group)
- BEE House
- Bu Thee Taung Youth Network
- Burma Human Rights Network
- Burma Medical Association
- Burma Monitor (Research and Monitoring)
- Burmese Rohingya Organization UK (BROUK)
- Burmese Women’s Union
- Calgary Karen Community Association (CKCA)
- California Karen Youth Forum, CA, USA
- CBT Gaw Ran Gyi Island (Nan Thar Pu)
- Child Protection Group
- Chin Agency
- Chin Community Base Rehabilitation
- Chin Human Rights Organization
- Chin Institute of Social Science
- Chin MATA Working Group
- Chin Resources Center
- Chin Women Development Organization
- Chin Youth Organization (Kanpalet)
- Chindwin Region Natural Resources Watch Group
- Chinland Natural Resources Watch Group
- Cho Chin Women Organization
- Citizen Action for Transparency
- Civic Engagement Development Network
- Civic Engagement Network for M2
- Civil Call
- Community Association Development
- Community Development Youth Network
- Community Observer Association
- Community Peace Support Group
- Community Response Group – ComReG
- Da Nu Youth group
- Daily Educations
- Dawei Development Association
- Dawei Watch Foundation
- Dawei Women Union
- Democracy for Ethnic Minorities Organization
- Democracy, Peace and Women Organization
- Democracy, Peace and Women Organization
- Diversity and Public Truth
- Doe Myae Civil Social Development Organization
- Edmonton Karen Community Youth Organization
- Empower Youth Enlightenment
- Enlightened Myanmar Research Foundation – EMReF
- Environmental Conservation Association
- Equality Myanmar
- Farmer Agricultural Network
- Farmer and Land Activity Group
- Farmer and Land Worker Union (Myeik Region)
- Farmer Union (Bago)
- Farmers and Agricultural Workers Group
- Farmers And Land Rights Action Group
- Farmers Development and Environmental Watch Group
- Farmers Network ဝမ်းတွင်း
- Farmers Union (Ayar)
- Forest User Association
- Free & Fair (youth) Network
- Free and Justice
- Free Education Service Organization
- Freedom and Labor Action Group
- Freedom Society
- Future Light Center
- Future Light for Child
- Future Light Social Development Organization
- Future Star Youth Organization
- Future Star မတ်တရာ
- Generation Wave
- Generation Wontho
- Genuine People’s Servants
- Global Family
- GOAL Organization
- Golden Future Social Development Organization
- Golden Heart Organization
- Good Hope Foundation (Bhamo)
- Green (Chin)
- Green Development Network
- Green for All (NTI)
- Green Justice Institute
- Green Network (Mergui Archipelago)
- Green Network (Tanintharyi Region)
- Green Right Organization
- Halcyon
- Heartland Foundation
- HeinNae Region Longterm Development Group
- HinTha Da PIDP Group
- Hinthar Tagon
- Hkumzup Development Committee
- Hna Lone Hla (AL)
- Homalinn Youth Network
- Hope For Children Development Organization
- Hsar Ka Paw Group
- Hsar Mu Htaw Group (ဆာမူထော် အဖွဲ့)
- Hsar Mu Waw Group (ဆာမူဝေါ် အဖွဲ့)
- Htaw Me Par Group (ထော်မဲပါ အဖွဲ့)
- Htee Gyaing Network
- Htoi Gender and Development Foundation
- Htum Thit Sa Rural Development Organization
- Htuu Region Development Group
- Human Rights Foundation of Monland
- International Karen Organization
- Justice For All (လူ့အခွင့်အရေး ကာကွယ်စောင့်ရှောက်ခြင်းနှင့် တရားမျှတမှုလက်လှမ်းမှီရေးအဖွဲ့)
- Justice Movement for Community Inlay
- Ka Nyut Kwin Youth Center
- Kachin State Women Network
- Kachin Women’s Association Thailand
- Kachin Women’s Union
- Kan Chay Arr Man Fishery Development Organization
- Kan Latt Myar
- Kanaung Institute
- Kani Natural Resources Watch
- Kanpetlet Land Development Organization
- Karen American Association of Wisconsin, WI, USA
- Karen Association of Huron, SD, USA
- Karen Community of Akron, OH, USA
- Karen Community of Canada (KCC)
- Karen Community of Czech Republic
- Karen Community of Finland
- Karen Community of Hamilton
- Karen Community of Iowa, IA, USA
- Karen Community of Ireland
- Karen Community of Israel
- Karen Community of Kansas City, KS & MO, USA
- Karen Community of Kitchener & Waterloo
- Karen Community of Leamington
- Karen Community of Lethbridge
- Karen Community of London
- Karen Community of Minnesota, MN, USA
- Karen Community of North Carolina, NC, USA
- Karen Community of Ottawa
- Karen Community of Regina
- Karen Community of Saskatoon
- Karen Community of Thunderbay
- Karen Community of Toronto
- Karen Community of Windsor
- Karen Community of Winnipeg
- Karen Community Society of British Columbia (KCSBC)
- Karen Environmental and Social Action Network
- Karen Grassroots Women Network
- Karen Human Rights Group
- Karen Organization of America
- Karen Organization of Illinois, IL, USA
- Karen Organization of San Diego, CA, USA
- Karen Peace Support Network
- Karen Thai Group -Karen Youth Network
- Karen Women’s Organization
- Karen Youth Education Pathways, USA
- Karen Youth of Norway
- Karen Youth of Toronto
- Karen Youth Organization
- Karenni Civil Society Network
- Karenni National Youth Organization (KNYO)
- Karenni National Women Organization
- Karenni Evergreen (KEG)
- Karenni Student Union (KSU)
- Karen Legal and Human Rights Center (KnLHRC)
- Karenni Social Welfare and Development Centre (KSWDC)
- Karenni Refugee Committee (KnRC)
- Karenni Health Department (KnHD)
- Karenni Literacy and Cultural Development Committee (KLCDC)
- Karenni Education Department (KnED)
- Karenni Ever Green
- Karenni MATA
- Karenni National Women’s Organization
- Karenni National Youth Organization
- Karenni State Farmer Union
- KatanKyun Development Group
- Kaung Myat Hnalonethar Health Care Organization
- Kaung Rwai Social Justice and Development Organization
- Kayan Earth Right Action Network
- Kayan New Generation Youth
- Kayan Women’s Organization
- Kayin Culture and Literature Committee
- K’Cho Land Development Association
- KECO
- Keng Tung Youth
- Khaingmyaethitsar Environmental Maintain Group
- Khanti Youths
- Khitlight Development Group
- Kin Oo Natural Resources Watch
- Kin Ywar (Ma da yar Youth)
- Kindness Foundation (Shan)
- KOG
- Kong Jor Shan Refugee Camp
- Korea Karen Organization
- Korea Karen Youth Organization
- Kyaik Hti Yo Mountain Range Lover Association
- Kyaukse Youth Network
- Kyike Mayaw MATA
- Kyonemaku Chaung Network
- Lamyan Farmers Network
- Lan Pya Kyal Sin Group
- Land Activist Group
- Land and Environmental
- Lat Pa Daung Monitoring Group
- LatButta Farmer Union
- Lawyers Network (Ayeyarwaddy)
- Legal Knowledge Sharing Group
- Let’s Help Each Other
- Life Light
- Light Civil Society Organization
- Light Social Development Organization
- Lin lake Kyal Social Development Organization
- Local Development Network (Kayah)
- Lu Mu Htar Group
- Ma Day Island Youth Development Association
- Ma Naw Phyu
- Maetao Clinic
- Mandalay Affairs Team
- Mandalay Regional Youth Association
- Mandalay Regional Youth Network
- Mandalay Women Political Federation (MWPF)
- Mann Thingaha (Gender GBV Team)
- Manoeyone Future Light Environmental and Development Group
- Marga
- MATA Sagaing Region
- Matu Women Organization
- Meiktila Youth Network
- Metta Development Foundation
- Mhine Nyein Network
- Mi Karen Youth
- Mitta Blood Health Group
- Mitta San Yae (Magway)
- Mitta San Yae (Shan)
- Mitta Shin Group
- Mitta Yake Group
- Mitta Yaung Sin Group
- Mohn Chaung Lover
- Mon Green Develop Group
- Mon State CSO Network
- Mon-region Social Development Network
- Mother Land Network
- MRDJO Magway Regional Rules of law and Justice group
- Mu Se Multi Development Association
- Mudidar ZiwadarNa and Social Association
- Muditar Organization
- Mudon CSO Network
- Mudon Township Development Group
- Mung Chying Rawt Jat
- Municipal Monitoring Group
- Muu basin Environmental Save Group
- Mwetaung Area Development Group
- Myanmar Alliance for Transparency and Accountability
- Myanmar Cultural Research Society
- Myanmar Deaf Society
- Myanmar Muslim Youth Association (Kachin State)
- Myanmar People Alliance (Shan State)
- Myat Darna Group
- Myeik Lawyer Network
- Na Phat Hla
- Nant San Environmental Save Group
- Nationalities Alliance of Burma USA (NABUSA)
- Natural Green Alliance
- Network for Human Rights Documentation Burma (ND-Burma)
- Northern Spectrum Youth Association
- Olive Organization
- Open data Myanmar
- Open Development Foundation
- Our Home
- Oversea Karen Organization Japan
- Pan Daing Shin
- Pan Thi Kyo LGBT Organization
- Pa-O Women’s Union
- Pa-O Youth Organization
- Parchan River Maintain Group
- Pauk Khaung Youth Network
- Pauktaingchaung Development Group
- Paung Ku
- Paungsee Myittar Organization
- Peace Development Committee (မိတ္ထီလာ)
- Peace, Development & Civic Engagement
- People Oriented and Development Group
- People Resource Alliance
- Phyu Sin Mitta
- Phyu Sin Myittar Social Development Organization
- Pluralistic Society
- Pone Yate Sit Regional Development Organization
- Progressive Voice
- Public Service Committee (Taunggoke)
- Pwint Lin Voluntary Group
- Pwint Lin Youth
- Pwint Phyu Development Group
- Pyar Mountain Conservation Group
- Pyi Thue A Kyoe Pyue Group
- Pyin Nyar Youth Association
- Rakha Arr Marn Group
- Rakhine Disable Association
- Rakhine National Network (Lay Taung)
- Rakhine Social Network (Myay Pone)
- Rakhine Women’s Union
- Rakhine Youth Generation
- RanByae Township Development Group
- Resources Center
- Responsible Waste Collecting Group
- Retired voluntary Group
- Rivers and Creeks Monitoring Group
- Rule of Law Watch Group
- Rural Social Development Organization
- Sal and KyaySin Mining Watch Group
- Sarnar Kyi Phyu Social Development Organization
- SarPhyu Farmer Network
- Say Da Nar Mon Voluntary Group
- Say Da Nar Shin
- Saytana Shaesaung Youth Organization
- Second Tap Root
- Sein Lan (Mogoke)
- Sein Lan (Tha Pake Kyin)
- Sein Lan Lwin Pyin Group (Laputta)
- Sein Lan Myay (Kyun Hla)
- Sein Yaung So (Katha)
- Shan Literature
- Shan MATA
- Shan State Peace Task Force
- Shan Women Development Network
- Shantinmae Environmental Maintain Committee
- Shwe Kyin Lover
- Shwe Minn Tha Foundation (Myanmar)
- Shwe Nathar Farmer Development Organization
- Shwe Network
- Shwe Paing Nyin Group
- Shwechinthae Farmers Network
- Sit Man Thaw Sanda Social group
- SKY-Youth, Kyaukphyu
- Social Development and Peace Network
- Southern Youth Development Organization
- SPACE
- Spectrum Organization
- Swam Su Ti Rural Development Organization
- Synergy – Social Harmony Organization
- Tarkapaw Youth Group
- Taunggyi Youth Center
- Tedim Youth Fellowship
- Tgyit Watch Group
- Than Dwe Development Association
- Than Lwin Thar Chin Group
- Thanlwin Network
- Thazi Youth Network
- The Seagull: Human Rights, Peace & Development
- The Wings Institute
- Theindaw Region Environmental Maintain Group
- Thingantaung Waterfall Maintain Group
- Thit Sar Yae Sin
- Thurira Sanda Group
- Tonzang Fellowship
- Tonzang Youth Association
- Transparency and Accountability Network Kachin State
- Tree Lover Group
- TRI STAR
- TRY Organization
- Union of Karenni State Youth
- Unity Erch Bridge Organization
- Upper Chindwin Youth Network
- Upper Myanmar Watch Group
- Waingmaw CSO Network
- Waingmaw Women CBO
- Western beach Ayeyarwaddy Environmental Conservation Group
- White Hand Social Welfare Group
- White Marker Group
- Windayea Village Social group
- Women & Youth’s Development Organization
- Women Development (Bago)
- Women Development Group (Ayeyarwaddy)
- Women Empowerment Group (Karen)
- Women’s Peace Network
- Women’s League of Burma
- Burmese Women’s Union
- Karenni National Women’s Organization
- Kachin Women’s Association Thailand
- Kuki Women’s Human Rights Organization
- Karen Women’s Organization
- Kayan Women’s Organization
- Lahu Women’s Organization
- Pa-O Women’s Union
- Shan Women’s Action Network
- Ta’ang Women’s Organization
- Tavoy Women’s Union
- Women’s for Justice
- Wonthoe Youths
- Worker Development Organization
- World View Monitoring and helping Group
- Yatanar Youngyi Social Development Organization
- Yaung Chi Thit Public Library Group
- Yaung Ne Oo Women Group
- Yaung Zin Arr Man Group
- Yaung Zin Hlaing
- Yaye Alliance Development Group
- Yi Ywal Yar Community Development
- Yi Ywal Yar Youth Development Organization
- YMCA (Mandalay)
- YoeMa Civil Society Group
- Young Ni Oo Social Development Organization
- Young Ni Oo Women Social Development Organization
- Youth Arr Man Group
- Youth Champion Network
- Youth Initiative for Human Rights
- Youth Society Network
- Zinlum Committee (Tanphaye)
- Zomi Youth Association
- ၈၈ငြိမ်းပွင့် စဥ့်ကူး
- ၈၈ငြိမ်းပွင့် မြစ်သား
- ၈၈ငြိမ်းပွင့် မိထ္တီလာ
- ၈၈ငြိမ်းပွင့် သပိတ်ကျင်း
- ၈၈ငြိမ်းပွင့် သာစည်
- ကျောက်ပန်းတောင်း လူငယ်ကွန်ယက်
- ကလျာဏမိတ္တလူမှုစောင့်ရှောက်ရေးအဖွဲ့ (ခင်ဦး၊ ရှားတော)
- စိမ်းရောင်စို (တံတားဦး)
- ညီမော်ဒူ
- တမာရိပ်
- တို့တောင်သူလယ်သမားအသင်း
- တောင်သမန်ကွန်ယက်
- ဒို့တိုးတက်ရာ အစည်းအရုံး
- ဒို့တောင်သူလယ်သမားအဖွဲ့အစည်း
- ပန်းပျိုးလက် ဗန်းမော် လူမှုရေးအဖွဲ့
- ပျော်ဘွယ် လူငယ်ကွန်ယက်
- မဇ္စျိမမေတ္တာ ရေလှူအသင်း (မိတ္ထီလာ)
- မတ္တရာ လူငယ်ကွန်ယက်
- မန္တလေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး လူငယ်ရေးရာကော်မတီ ကိုယ်စားလှယ်များ
- မန္တလေးလူထုနေရာ (Mandalay Community Center)
- မြင်းခြံ နိုင်ကျဉ်းအဖွဲ့
- မြင့်မြတ်ဧရာဝတီ လူငယ်လူမှုကွန်ယက်
- မြေလတ်မျိုးဆက်အင်စတီကျု
- မိတ္ထီလာခရိုင် အလင်းတန်းအဖွဲ့
- ယုံကြည်ရာ အသိပညာပြန့်ပွားရေးအသင်း
- ရွှေခြံအားမာန်အဖွဲ့ မြင်းခြံ
- ရွှေတြိဂံတောင်သူလယ်သမားအဖွဲ့
- ရွှေတောင်တိုက်နယ်တောင်သူ့အားမာန် ဝမ်းတွင်းမြို့နယ်အဖွဲ့
- ရှစ်လေးလုံးသွေးသစ် (မိုးညှင်း)
- လမ်းပြကြယ် LGBT Group
- ဝါးစိမ်းတောင်ကာကွယ်စောင့်ကြည့်ရေးကော်မတီ (WPWC)
- ဝိုင်းမော်မြို့နယ်လုံးဆိုင်ရာ သျှမ်းလူငယ်များစည်းလုံးညီညွတ်ရေးအဖွဲ့
- သင့်မြတ်လိုသူများ ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးပရဟိတအဖွဲ့
- သုခမိန်အင်စတီကျု
- အိမ်ယာမဲ့ပြည်သူများ အစည်းအရုံး
- အောင်သာစည်အဖွဲ့
- ဂရုဏာဖောင်ဒေးရှင်း (ကရင်)
- စိမ်းလန်းအမိမြေ
- ပြည်ထောင်စုရှေ.နေများနှင့် တရားဥပဒေ အထောက်အကူပြုဖွဲ (တရားလွတ်တော်ရှေ.နေ)
- အာနန္ဒာ ဒေတာ
- သာသည့်မြေ ဖောင်ဒေးရှင်း
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