FIDH urges the UN Security Council to take urgent action in response to the violations occurring in Burma

10/11/2009
Press release

In a letter sent today to the member States of the United Nations Security Council, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) urged the UN body to address the situation in Burma during its meeting on November 11 which will discuss the issue of protection of civilians in armed conflict. FIDH and its partners on Burma, ALTSEAN-Burma and Burma Lawyer’s Council (BLC) assert that the violations of civilians’ rights taking place in the ethnic minority regions of Burma in the context of the junta’s military offensive amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes and thus fit into this theme and should therefore be addressed by the Security Council.

The United Nations Human Rights special mechanisms, including the UN Special Rapporteurs on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, have cited the destruction of over 3,000 ethnic minority villages, the conscription of thousands of child soldiers, the forced displacement of over one million refugees and internally displaced persons over the past years, and the widespread and systematic rape of women in the ethnic minority regions of the country. The Security Council has passed numerous resolutions condemning such crimes against the civilian population. FIDH requests the member States of the Security Council to take urgent and proper action in response to the violations occurring in Burma in the context of the current armed conflict.

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