Myanmar: Re letter to Min Aung Hlaing ahead of the UN Transforming Education Summit in New York

12 August 2022

To:
Amnesty International
Avaaz
Campaña Latinoamericana por el Derecho a la Educación
Defense for Children International
Global Campaign for Education
Human Rights Watch
KidsRights
Malala Fund
Plan International
Save the Children
World Organization for Early Childhood Education (OMEP)
World Vision International

Re: Letter to Min Aung Hlaing ahead of the UN Transforming Education Summit in New York

386 civil society organizations are writing to you, outraged by the letter your organizations co-signed on 11 August 2022 in which you addressed Senior General Min Aung Hlaing as “Prime Minister of the Government of Myanmar”. The letter sent to Min Aung Hlaing ahead of the United Nations Transforming Education Summit in New York also addressed sanctioned individual Wanna Maung Lwin as “Minister of Foreign Affairs” and Kyaw Zeya as “Ambassador Extraordinary” to France and “Permanent Delegate” to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

This is an affront to the people of Myanmar who have sacrificed their lives to resist the Myanmar military’s attempt to seize power through a brutal and illegal coup.

Min Aung Hlaing is not the “Prime Minister” of Myanmar, he is the leader of an illegal coup attempt. The military junta is neither a legitimate government of Myanmar nor can it be said to control several key functions of the government. They must not be referred to and addressed as the representatives of the state of Myanmar.

Min Aung Hlaing and his murderous band of military generals has killed 2,189 and detained 12,000 people since 1 February 2021. They hold no legitimacy in the eyes of the Myanmar people. Rather, this letter should be sent to the National Unity Government of Myanmar which is formed on the basis of the 2020 elections results.

Several of these organizations work or have worked in Myanmar, purportedly to improve the lives and rights of the people of Myanmar. By issuing a letter that potentially bestows a misguided sense of legitimacy onto the junta is an abrogation of responsibility that these organizations have to their ‘beneficiaries’.

We demand that you withdraw this letter and make a formal public apology for the gross mistake and misrepresentation. Furthermore, this letter must be submitted to the National Unity Government who are the only entity that can legitimately represent Myanmar at the UNESCO education conference.

The gravity of the situation also calls for an internal investigation by the signatory organizations. It is imperative that such mistake do not occur again.

We await your swift action and response to this letter.

For more information, please contact:

• Khin Ohmar, Progressive Voice, [email protected]
• Naw Htoo Htoo, Karen Human Rights Group, [email protected]
• Kyaw Win, Burma Human Rights Network, [email protected]
• Hannah Russell, Myanmar Action Group Denmark, [email protected]

Sincerely,

Signed by 386 civil society organizations, including 230 groups who have chosen not to disclose their names:

1. Actions Against Myanmar Military Coup (Sydney)
2. All Arakan Students and Youths’ Congress
3. ALTSEAN-Burma
4. Arakan Rivers Network (ARN)
5. Asia Pacific Solidarity Coalition
6. Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
7. Association of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters
8. Association of United Nationality in Japan (AUN)
9. Association Suisse-Birmanie (ASB)
10. Athan – Freedom of Expression Activist Organization
11. Ayeyarwaddy Youths’ Union
12. Basic Education Student Unions Network
13. Blood Money Campaign
14. Burma Human Rights Network
15. Burma Refugee Saving Association (B.R.S.A)
16. Burmese Women’s Union
17. Chin Community of Japan (CCJ)
18. Chin MATA Working Group
19. Chin Resources Center
20. Chin Youth Organization of Japan (CYO-JP)
21. Colorfulspring (ရောင်စုံနွေဦး)
22. CRPH, NUG Support Team Germany-Deutschland
23. Dawei Development Association – DDA
24. Dawei Youths in Japan (DYJ)
25. Dawna Tenasserim – IDPs Supply Force
26. Democracy, Peace and Women’s Organization
27. Digital Rights Collective
28. Doh Atu – Ensemble pour le Myanmar’
29. Dragon Dawn
30. Educational Initiatives Prague
31. Equality Myanmar
32. European Karen Network (EKN)
33. Federation of Worker’s Union of Burmese Citizens in Japan (FWUBC)
34. Free Rohingya Coalition
35. Future Light Center
36. General Strike Committee of Nationalities (GSCN)
37. General Strike Coordination Body – GSCB
38. GenY For Revolution Japan
39. Global Myanmar Spring Revolution
40. Global Myanmar Spring Revolution – Japan
41. Grass-root People
42. Green Network (Myeik)
43. Heroes Behind Bar
44. Hope For Youth -Kyushu Japan
45. HTY Scout Channel
46. HKASHI (သဘာဝပတ်ဝန်းကျင် နှင့် သယံဇာတများကို ချစ်မြတ်နိုးသောအဖွဲ့)
47. Human Rights Foundation of Monland
48. India For Myanmar
49. Information & Scout News (Hlaing)
50. Initiatives for International Dialogue
51. Insein Scout Channel
52. Inter Pares
53. Interfaith Youth Coalition on Aids in Myanmar (IYCA-Myanmar)
54. International Society of Myanmar Scholars and Professionals (Japan)
55. Japan Myanmar Future Creative Association (JMFCA)
56. Japan Myanmar Help Network – JMHN
57. Justice For Myanmar
58. Kachin Affairs Organization -Japan (KAO (Japan)
59. Kachin Gender Star Group
60. Kachin Women Activist Group
61. Kamayut Scout Channel
62. Kansai Group Japan
63. Karen Human Rights Group
64. Karen National League Japan
65. Karen Peace Support Network
66. Karen Swedish Community (KSC)
67. Karen Women’s Organization
68. Karenni Civil Society Network
69. Karenni National Society (KNS)Japan
70. Kayan Internally Displacement Supervising Committee (KIDSC)
71. Kayan Women’s Organization
72. Keng Tung Youth
73. KnowUsMoreMyanmar (KUM)
74. Kobe Myanmar Community (KMC)
75. Kyauktada Strike Committee (KSC)
76. Kyimyindaing Scout Channel
77. Land In Our Hands
78. Lanmadaw,Latha & Pabedan Scout Channel
79. League For Democracy in Burma (L.D.B Japan)
80. LGBT Alliance Myanmar
81. LGBT Community Yangon
82. LGBT Union Mandalay
83. MASBO-Myanmar Active Students & Businesspeople Organization
84. Mayangone News
85. Metta Campaign Mandalay
86. MilkTeaAlliance Calendar
87. Minority Affairs Institute – MAI (Myanmar)
88. Mon Youth For Federal Democracy (MYFD)
89. Monywa LGBT Strike
90. Muslim Youth Network
91. Myanmar Action Group Denmark
92. Myanmar Alliance for Transparency and Accountability
93. Myanmar Development Support Group (MDSG)
94. Myanmar Nationalities’ Support Organization – JP (MNSO)
95. Myanmar People Alliance (Shan State)
96. Myanmar Spring Revolution Japan (MSRJ)
97. Myanmar Tozan Club (MTC)
98. Netherlands Myanmar Solidarity Platform
99. Youth and Student Association, Japan (MYSA)
100. Myanmar’s Youth Association Hokkaido (MYAH)
101. Network for Human Rights Documentation Burma (ND-Burma)
102. New Rehmonnya Federated Force
103. NOK Information & Scout Echo
104. North Dagon & East Dagon News
105. Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica
106. Okinawa Myanmar Association (OMA)
107. Olive Organization
108. Palaung National Society Japan, PNS-Japan
109. Palaw Supporting Group Japan
110. People’s Hope Spring Revolution (PHSR)
111. Progressive Voice
112. Punnyakari Mon National Society Japan, PMNS-Japan
113. Revolution Tokyo Myanmar (RTM)
114. Second Tap Root
115. Shan Community in Japan (SCJ)
116. Shan MATA
117. Shizu Youth For Myanmar
118. Shwe Pyi Thar News
119. Sisters 2 Sisters
120. Sitt Nyein Pann Foundation
121. Sone See Yar (Volunteer Group)
122. South Dagon Scouting Infos (SDG)
123. Southern Youth Development Organization
124. Spring Revolution Interfaith Network-SRIN
125. Spring Revolution Myanmar Muslim Network-SRMMN
126. Spring Revolution Restaurant
127. Synergy – social harmony organization
128. Tai Youths Network Japan (TYNJ)
129. Tamwe Nway Oo Channel
130. Tanintharyi MATA
131. Tanintharyi Nationalities Congress
132. Tanintharyi People Voice
133. Thaketa & Dawbon Scout Channel
134. Thanlyin Information & Scout channel
135. Try Together At Japan (TTAJ)
136. Union of Karenni State Youth
137. Union of Myanmar Citizen Association – Japan
138. U.S. Campaign for Burma
139. Voice For Justice
140. We Are One Saga MOSA
141. We for All
142. We Support
143. White and Green
144. Women Activist Myanmar
145. Women Alliance Burma (WAB)
146. Women’s League of Burma
147. Yangon Medical Network
148. Yaw Funding Japan
149. Yokohama Pamphlet Campaign – Myanmar
150. Youth Scout For Democracy (YSD)
151. Z Fighter News
152. Zeegwat News
153. ဂျပန်ပြည်မှတွဲလက်များ
154. တနင်္သာရီအခြေစိုက်ကျောင်းသားသမဂ္ဂများကွန်ရက်
155. ပွင့်ဖြူလယ်ယာမြေကွန်ရက်
156. 一般社団法人 ミャンマーグローバル支援財団 (MGSF)

***We have received overwhelming support for the letter. Below are list of additional organizations that have signed-on to the letter after its sent

1. Ah Nah Podcast – conversation with Myanmar
2. Arakan CSO Network
3. Arakan Humanitarian Coordination Team- AHCT
4. Asian Democracy Network (ADN)
5. Association Suisse-Birmanie
6. Basic Education General Strike Committee – BEGSC
7. Basic Education Workers’ Union Steering Committee
8. Burma Action Ireland
9. Burma Support
10. Burma Task Force
11. Burmese Canadian Network (BCN)
12. CDM Support Team Mandalay (CSTM)
13. CRPH & NUG Supporters Ireland
14. CRPH Funding Ireland
15. Democracy Movement Strike Committee – Dawei
16. Democratic Youth Council
17. Future Thanlwin
18. Info Birmanie
19. International Association, Myanmar-Switzerland
20. Justice Movement for Community (Innlay)
21. Kachin State Civilian Movement
22. La Communauté Birmane de France
23. Mandalay Civil Society Organizations
24. Mandalay Engineer Group
25. Mandalay Engineer United Force
26. Muslim Youth Union
27. Myanmar Emergency Fund – Canada
28. Myanmar People in Ireland
29. Myanmar Teachers’ Federation
30. Myaung Education Network (မြောင်ပညာရေးကွန်ရက်)
31. Myaung Medical Team (နွေဦးရောင်နီဆေးအဖွဲ့)
32. Network for Advocacy Action
33. Rohingya Youth Association
34. Save and Care Organization for Ethnic Women at Border Areas (SCOEWBA)
35. Shatjam Revolution Journal
36. Technological Teachers’ Federation
37. Tenasserim Student Unions’ Network
38. The Helpers for Perfect Democracy (HPD)
39. Universities Kachin Literature and Culture Association – Yangon
40. Youths for Community-YfC Myaung
41. MIIT ကျောင်းသားကျောင်းသူများ သပိတ်စစ်ကြောင်း
42. LGBTIQ (လိင်စိတ်ခံယူမှုကွဲပြားသူများ) သပိတ်စစ်ကြောင်း
43. ကျန်းမာရေးမိသားစု – မန္တလေး
44. ချမ်းမြသာစည်မြို့နယ် လူထုသပိတ်စစ်ကြောင်း
45. စိန်ပန်း သပိတ်စစ်ကြောင်း
46. တမ္ပဝတီ လူထုသပိတ်စစ်ကြောင်
47. တိုင်းရင်းသားလူငယ်များ အထွေထွေသပိတ်ကော်မတီ
48. တိုက်ကွမ်ဒို အားကစားအသင်း
49. ဒေါင်းစစ်သည်
50. ပညာရေးမိသားစု (စစ်အာဏာရှင်ဆန့်ကျင်ရေး ပညာရေးစစ်ကြောင်းများ ချိတ်ဆက်ညှိနှိုင်းရေးကော်မတီ)
51. ပုဂ္ဂလိက မူကြိုဆရာ၊ ဆရာမများအဖွဲ့
52. ပြည်ကြီးတံခွန်သပိတ်
53. ဘုရားကြီး ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးသပိတ်စစ်ကြောင်း
54. ဘာသာပေါင်းစုံ သပိတ်စစ်ကြောင်း
55. မဟာအောင်မြေမြို့နယ် စုပေါင်းလူထုသပိတ်စစ်ကြောင်း
56. မန္တလေးလူငယ် သပိတ်စစ်ကြောင်း
57. မန္တလေး ကုန်စည်ဒိုင်သပိတ်စစ်ကြောင်း
58. မန္တလေးမြို့အခြေစိုက် လူထုသပိတ်စစ်ကြောင်
59. မန္တလေးမဟာမိတ် သပိတ်တပ်ပေါင်းစုစစ်ကြောင်း
60. မန္တလာတက္ကသိုလ် ကျောင်းသားကျောင်းသူများသပိတ်စစ်ကြောင်း
61. မန္တလေးတက္ကသိုလ် ကျောင်းသား ကျောင်းသူဟောင်းများ သပိတ်စစ်ကြောင်း
62. မန္တလေး၊ တက္ကသိုလ် ဒီဂရီ၊ ကောလိပ် ဆရာ၊ ဆရာမများ၊ ဝန်ထမ်းများ သပိတ်စစ်ကြောင်း
63. မြတောင် သပိတ်စစ်ကြောင်
64. မြန်မာ့မီးရထား တိုင်းအမှတ် (၃) CDM ဝန်ထမ်းများ သပိတ်စစ်ကြောင်း
65. မျိုးဆက်-Generations
66. သံဃသမဂ္ဂ သပိတ်စစ်ကြောင်း
67. သမဝါယမတက္ကသိုလ် ကျောင်းသူ၊ ကျောင်းသားများ သပိတ်စစ်ကြောင်း
68. သပြေညို သတင်းလွှာ
69. အ.ထ.က (၇) ကျောင်းသူ၊ ကျောင်းသားဟောင်းများ သပိတ်စစ်ကြောင်း
70. အ.လ.က (၁၂) ထခွဲ၊ အခြေခံပညာကျောင်းသားများသမဂ္ဂ (အ.က.သ)
71. အမျိုးသားဒီမိုကရေစီအဖွဲ့ချုပ် (မန္တလေးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး)
72. အဖမ်းဆီးခံပြည်သူများ ကိုယ်စားပြုသပိတ်စစ်ကြောင်း
73. အောင်ပင်လယ် ပင်မသပိတ်စစ်ကြောင်း
74. အောင်မြေသာစံ ပညာရေးကျောင်းပေါင်းစုံ သပိတ်စစ်ကြောင်း

***Additional 23 undisclosed organizations endorsed.

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