Call on International Community to Take Effective Action for the Release of All Political Prisoners, Including State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

Call on International Community to Take Effective Action for the Release of All Political Prisoners, Including State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

Date: 21 April 2026

Today, 21 April 2026, marks the 12th anniversary of the passing of Hanthawaddy U Win Tin, former political prisoner and patron of the National League for Democracy (NLD), who, after his release from prison, continued to wear a blue shirt and relentlessly fight for the release of political prisoners.

Since the military’s illegal coup on 1 February 2021, State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, along with public leaders, politicians, activists, strike members, journalists, members of various unions, civil society organizations, members of the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), and the public who peacefully exercised their freedom of expression to oppose military dictatorship, have been arbitrarily arrested and detained in prisons and detention centers. These political prisoners, including men, women, LGBTQI+ persons, and children, have been subjected to inhumane treatment, torture, oppression, and serious human rights violations, such as prisoners’ rights, during interrogation and imprisonment.

According to a statement by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) dated April 20, 2026, political prisoners, including 7216 men, 6394 women, and 637 minors, remain detained in prisons and detention centers across Myanmar. According to records from the Political Prisoners Network – Myanmar (PPNM), from 1 February 2021 to 1 April 2026, many political prisoners, including 237 men, 41 women, and 1 LGBT person, lost their lives in prison due to inadequate healthcare, torture, and denial of emergency medical treatment, including during natural disasters.

Our organizations carried out a 12-day Blue Shirt Campaign from 10 April to 21 April 2026 to demand the release of all political prisoners, including State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

Therefore, we respectfully call upon the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), ASEAN, the United States of America (USA), neighboring countries, and international leaders committed to human rights to take urgent, effective, and concrete action to secure the immediate release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners, refuse recognition of facade government or any other illegitimate structure  established by the military junta, halt the sale and transfer of jet fuel used in aerial attacks against civilians, hold the military accountable under international law for serious human rights violations, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, and apply swift and effective pressure to end ongoing atrocities and violence against the people of Myanmar as soon as possible.

#Blueshirt4politicalprisoners
#Blueshirt4Burma
#Blueshirtmovementmyanmar

For more information, please contact

Thaik Tun Oo (PPNM) – ( Signal Username – PPNM_tto.06 )
Chaw Su San (GSCB) – ( Signal Username – @su21.93 )
Poe Ei (NOTM) – (Signal Username – BSMM4PP.2026)
Kaung Yan Lin (ထောင်ဝင်စာပို့ကြမယ် – ကလေးမြို့) – ( Telegram Username @bsmm4pp).

Requesting organizations

  1. All Arakan Students’ & Youths’ Congress (AASYC)
  2. Asia Justice and Rights (AJAR)
  3. Athan- Freedom of Expression Activist Organization
  4. Bago Unit Federal Front (BUFF)
  5. Blood Money Campaign
  6. Burmese Women’s Union (BWU)
  7. Dawei Political Prisoner Network (DPPN)
  8. Federal Myanmar Tourism Committee
  9. FNCC Burma Fact Check Community
  10. Freelance Volunteer Myanmar
  11. General Strike Coordination Body (GSCB)
  12. Generation Wave
  13. Generation Youth Development Association (GYDA)
  14. India For Myanmar (I4M)
  15. Karenni Nurses Association (KNA)
  16. Karenni Political Prisoners Association (KPPA)
  17. Karenni State Student Union (KSSU)
  18. Kawyaw Manumanaw National Youth Organization (KyNYO)
  19. Kayah State Basic Education Teachers’ Union (KBETU)
  20. Kayan New Generation Youth (KNGY)
  21. Keng Tung Youth
  22. Kyae Lak Myay
  23. Magway Region Human Rights Network (MHRN)
  24. Myanmar (CRPH) Support Group, Noway
  25. Myanmar Prisons Witness (MPW)
  26. New Myanmar Foundation (NMF)
  27. Nursing Training School – Mandalay Students’ Union (NTS-MDYSU)
  28. Nway Oo Guru Lay Myar (NGLM)
  29. Nway Oo Taman – Political Prisoners Association (NOTM)
  30. OCTOPUS (ပြည်သူ့အကျိုးပြု လူငယ်အဖွဲ့အစည်း)
  31. Our Rights
  32. Pakokku Youth Development Council
  33. Political Prisoners Network – Myanmar (PPNM)
  34. Politics for Women Myanmar (PFWM)
  35. Progressive Voice (PV)
  36. Shan MATA
  37. Spring Revolution Myanmar Muslim Community_SRMMC
  38. Stars of Myanmar Friendship UK
  39. Students’ Union League for Myanmar Nursing and Midwifery Training Schools (SULMNMTS)
  40. Taiwan Alliance for Myanmar
  41. Tanintharyi Youth Network (TYN)
  42. The Calling Digest
  43. Women Alliance Burma—WAB
  44. Women Lead Resource Center (WLRC)
  45. Youth Empowerment (YE)
  46. ထောင်ဝင်စာပို့ကြမယ် (ကလေးမြို့)
  47. ပဲခူးအရှေ့နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားဟောင်းများကွန်ရက်
  48. ပြည်သူ့သပိတ်အင်အားစု
  49. မြိတ်ခရိုင် (၈၈) ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးနှင့် ပွင့်လင်း လူ့အဖွဲ့အစည်း
  50. သမိုင်းသယ်ဆောင်သူများ

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