Will you help us for Human Rights Day?

Saturday was Human Rights Day. It’s a day to reflect on how we can take effective action in support the rights of others.

This is also a day when we can celebrate our successful week in Washington, DC. Because of our year-long lobbying for the BURMA Act, Congress is on the brink of passing a significant new package of support for human rights advocates and pro-democracy forces in Myanmar.

Today, would you honor Human Rights Day by making a gift to support our work?

Earlier this month, we woke up to horrific reports that Burmese military jets bombed a music festival in Kachin state in northern Myanmar, killing at least eighty people. Artists, musicians and families were there. And the Myanmar military sent warplanes to bomb it.

When the Myanmar junta commits atrocities, we respond immediately to hold them accountable. You are one of over 20,000 people in the United States who has taken action to lobby Congress or pressure companies that support the Burmese junta. Together, we can end the Burmese army’s brutal and corrupt rule.

We must keep up our struggle to end the Myanmar military’s atrocities. Today would you make a gift to support our work in 2023?

Every week, we swing into action. We provide you with the tools to make sure your voice is heard.

Working together, we’ve pushed the Biden Administration to impose sanctions on the Myanmar military and Congress to pass the BURMA Act. Our pressure was crucial in forcing oil giants Chevron and TotalEnergies to announce their withdrawal from Myanmar.

Today, would you help build on our momentum by making a one-time or sustaining recurring gift to support our work?

Our supporters have stepped up in impressive numbers. Our email list of supporters has grown almost exponentially to over 600,000. This includes over 300,000 people inside Myanmar who can take our actions targeting corporations from the safety of their homes.

However, we face a gap between the money we’re raising and the money we need. We have ambitious plans to help support and organize our supporters given the massive increase in their numbers. That’s why we ask you now for your additional financial help.

Please just click here make a one-time or sustaining recurring gift to support our work.

Each week, we make it easy for you to make your voice heard by your government or in corporate boardrooms.  Your gift will build our grassroots movement to end the atrocities and the repression of the Burmese army. Your support will fund our campaigns to:

  • lobby governments worldwide to impose sanctions on Burma’s generals and their business empire;
  • put our consumer, shareholder, and media pressure on corporations to end their business partnerships with Burma’s army;
  • organize students and faculty to press their campus to step up and join the movement to end genocide in Myanmar and throughout the world;
  • promote “end genocide” bills in cities and states globally.

To build up our campaigns, your one-time or recurring sustaining gift would have a significant impact.

Help us help the Chin

The Myanmar military is deploying tens of thousands of troops and heavy weapons to Chin State northern Myanmar. These tactics are ominously reminiscent of those the army employed in its genocidal attacks against the Rohingya in 2016 and 2017. The Chin people cannot wait.

In response, U.S. State Department Counselor Derek Chollet urged Singapore to help restrict the Myanmar military’s access to foreign funds. Singapore is one of Myanmar’s largest foreign investors and its banks hold junta assets.

We can help stop more atrocities in Myanmar. We are doing this by pressing our governments and our corporations to end the flow of money to the Myanmar military. We’ve always known that we’ll be in this struggle for the long haul. With that in mind, would you make a sustaining gift each month to support our crucial work?

Click here to make a monthly sustaining gift of $10, $25, $50, or $100.

Thank you for your previous generous gifts. These past few months, you have stepped up your donations and helped build our campaigns that hit back hard against the Myanmar military.

Currently, we raise just over $1,700 per month through recurring gifts. Would you turn your one-time gift into a recurring donation to help put us over $2,500 in steady monthly support?

Please click here to make a monthly sustaining gift of $10, $25, $50, or $100 to build our pressure on Burma’s military.

Your sustaining monthly gift would help build our campaigns that both support the Civil Disobedience Movement and hit Myanmar’s military hard.

Your gift will build our grassroots movement to end the atrocities and the repression of the Burmese army. Your support will fund our campaigns to:

  • lobby governments worldwide to impose sanctions on Burma’s generals and their business empire;
  • put consumer, shareholder, and media pressure on corporations – such as Facebook, Cloudflare, Harry Winston, and Chevron – to end their business partnerships with Burma’s army;
  • organize students and faculty to press their campus to step up and join the movement to end genocide in Burma and throughout the world;
  • promote “end genocide” bills in cities and states globally.

To build up our campaigns, please make a monthly sustaining gift of $10, $25, $50, or $100.

Thank you so much for your time and your support.

Learn more about the #BurmaBill here.

#Stop GenocideGems from funding the Myanmar Military

#GenocideGems

You may have heard of #BloodDiamonds, but how much do you know about #GenocideGems? Myanmar produces more than 90% of the world’s rubies and jade, and these stones command the highest prices on the international market. Because it dominates Burma’s gemstone industry, the Myanmar military profits when high-end jewelry retailers – like Harry Winston (owned by Swatch) – buy Burmese gems for their collections.

Today, let’s take four actions to hold Harry Winston – and its owner Swatch – to account. They need to stop profiting from the sale of #GenocideGems.

Action #1: Share our petition to Harry Winston

Since you’ve already signed our petition to Harry Winston, please share the petition with your friends and family. Use this link.

Action #2: Post on the social media of Harry Winston and Swatch

In addition to signing the petition, follow up by posting messages on the companies’ social media accounts.

Copy the message below and adapt it as you wish. Add it as a comment on posts showcasing jewelry or watches on the Facebook and Instagram pages of Harry Winston and Swatch.

I refuse to buy your brands while Harry Winston (owned by Swatch) buys #GenocideGems from Myanmar that profit the Burmese military and its atrocities against the peoples of Myanmar.

Read the truth about Harry Winston here. https://bit.ly/HarryWinston_NoGenocideGems

Use the links below to the jeweler’s social media.

Don’t neglect to post similar comments on the companies’ LinkedIn page. Join us in telling the companies on their job postings why you would never work for a company that supports the Myanmar military.

Action #3: Make an appointment to protest at your local Harry Winston store

In addition to signing the petition, would you follow up by visiting one of Harry Winston’s stores?

Click on this link to make an appointment at one of Harry Winston’s swanky stores. If you can turn up for the appointment, ask to see the jewelry with rubies. Then explain to the store manager why you would never buy from Harry Winston as long as it buys gems that profit the Myanmar military.

Breaking! One of our awesome activists in the UK just visited Harry Winston’s London store. Let’s make sure Harry Winston hears from us at every store worldwide!

Action #4: Attend our virtual comedy night. 

On September 16 at 8:00 pm, some of the funniest people on the planet will come together to support our work on behalf of the Burmese people. You can learn more about the event here and you can buy your tickets here.  This is a virtual event.

We can and must build our pressure on Myanmar’s military. Your actions have moved your governments to pass tough sanctions and successfully pressed companies, such as Western Union, online jeweler Angara, and Kirin brewery, to end their business partnerships with the Burmese military. We can stop the sale of #GenocideGems.

Your gifts will help us keep building the campaigns and tools that we need to take effective action together. Please click here to make a gift of $30, $60, $120, $250, or more. Learn more about our other actions for the Rohingya here.

Harry Winston item featuring Burmese gems

For Further Reading:

When will Secretary Blinken recognize the genocide in Myanmar?

Antony Blinken

Let’s hold the Myanmar military accountable.

Last week, we joined over 90 organizations calling on U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to publicly determine that Myanmar has committed genocide and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya people. This is a crucial initiative to hold the Myanmar military accountable for its atrocities throughout the country.

Lead sponsored by Senator Ben Cardin and Rep. Gregory Meeks, the new Burma bill to be introduced shortly in Congress will, not only hold accountable the Myanmar military for its mass atrocities, but also to provide much needed humanitarian assistance directly to the Myanmar people. Now, let’s make the final push to get this bill introduced!

Even if you’ve sent a message before, click here today to urge your Members of Congress to co-sponsor the new Burma bill.

This Wednesday, we will mark the fourth anniversary of the Myanmar military’s worst crackdown on the Rohingya, a campaign that killed thousands and forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh. It’s long past time for Secretary of State Antony Blinken to declare that the Rohingya are genocide victims.

Such a designation by the U.S. government will underpin the case for further US sanctions on the Myanmar military junta and assistance to Burmese civil society organizations. It would also improve the prospect for growing US recognition of the democratic and multi-ethnic National Unity Government of Myanmar.

Click here to join the thousands signing our petition to Secretary Blinken calling on him to recognize the Myanmar military’s genocide of the Rohingya.

We need your help to keep up our important work. Learn more about how you can help us here.

We need your help

Six short months ago, we witnessed the Myanmar military depose the civilian government in a coup d’etat. Using the same tactics that it used against the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities, the Burmese army has brutally cracked down on the new, young, and multi-ethnic Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM).

In response, we immediately swung into action. Just hours after the military coup, we launched petitions to the Biden Administration and Congress to impose tough and targeted sanctions on the military and support the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). We threw everything we had into building on our campaigns to end the Myanmar military’s genocide of the Rohingya and launch our broader Campaign for a New Myanmar.Click here to make a gift. Your support will us raise together the $50,000 we need to sustain our crucial advocacy work through year-end.
When the Myanmar people most needed help, you stepped up. Your collective voices have had a significant impact.

  • You put effective pressure on the White House. Since the coup, the U.S. Administration has been the leader worldwide in imposing further tough and targeted sanctions on the military and its business interests.
  • Congress heeds your voice. Thanks to thousands of your emails, phone calls, and meetings, Congress will soon introduce a comprehensive new “Burma bill” supporting the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) and further holding the military to account.
  • Your campaign of “citizen sanctions” forced companies to end partnerships with the Myanmar military. You successfully pressed Cartier, Western Union, and Kirin to end their business partnerships with the Myanmar military.Because of your pressure, oil giants Chevron and Total have suspended a portion of their payments to the military-controlled Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise.

This fall, let’s dig deep to support our work to hold the Myanmar military to account.
Your gift is crucial this fall as we further build our grassroots movement to end the atrocities and the repression of the Burmese army. Your support will fund our campaigns to:

  • lobby governments worldwide to impose sanctions on Burma’s generals and their business empire;
  • put consumer, shareholder, and media pressure on corporations – such as Facebook, Cloudflare, and Chevron – to end their business partnerships with Burma’s army;
  • organize students and faculty to press their campus to step up and join the movement to end genocide in Burma and throughout the world;
  • promote “end genocide” bills in cities and states globally.

Please make a gift of $30, $60, or $120 to help sustain and expand our vital work.

Military is Letting Covid Ravage Myanmar

covid

The third – and thus far most serious – wave of Covid is hitting Myanmar hard. Hospitals have reached maximum capacity. At military hospitals, staff are turning away civilians under orders to limit treatment to military personnel and their relatives. As Progressive Voice reports:

“Ultimately, the root cause of all these human rights and humanitarian catastrophes is the military junta’s insatiable lust for power at all costs, including letting the people of Myanmar perish from COVID-19 as collateral damage to their ends. This is another impasse which requires the international community’s emergency response.”

Again and again, the military junta has proved itself to be illegitimate, brutal, corrupt, and incompetent. We need the international communuty to not only to hold accountable the Myanmar military, but also to provide humanitarian assistance directly to the Myanmar people. It is also time for the world to recognize instead the National Unity Government of Myanmar.

Thank you for signing our petition to President Biden urging that the US recognize the National Unity Government of Myanmar. Would you share the petition with your friends and family?

To share the petition urging the US to recognize the NUG, you can simply copy and paste the following message. You can also personalise the message as you wish. Email, text, and post this message on your social media.

Please join me in signing this petition urging that President Biden recognize the civilian National Unity Goverment of Myanmar. It’s vital that we support democracy and human rights in Myanmar following the military coup. Just click this link to sign: https://bit.ly/usa4nug

The NUG is made up of elected representatives, ethnic minority leaders, and prominent members of civil society. It was created to formalize and continue to fight for the profound changes that are happening in Myanmar. The NUG has vowed to abolish the 1982 citizenship law that has been the basis for excluding the Rohingya. It has also promised to abolish the 2008 constitution which grants the military vast powers.

To succeed, the NUG, however, needs recognition and access to the resources. This is why recognition from the U.S. government is so crucial to its success. For the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) in Myanmar to be successful, the world must recognize the NUG as the legitimate representative of the Myanmar people.

So please share our petition widely. Let’s build the movement of people worldwide taking action to support democracy and human rights in Myanmar. Thank you so much,

ps. Your gifts will help us keep building the campaigns and tools that we need to take effective action together. Please click here to make a gift of $30, $60, $120, $250, or more.

For Further Reading:

Why the Biden administration should recognize Myanmar’s shadow government,”by Michael Haack and SiuSue Mark, Washington Post, 15 July 2021

National Unity Government– official website (English)

Why the National Unity Government’s Statement on Myanmar’s Rohingya Is Important,” by Angshuman Choudhury, The Diplomat, 9 June 2021

Follow the up-to-the-minute news on Twitter using these hashags: #CivilDisobedienceMovement #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar #JusticeForMyanmar

Subscribe to Frontier Myanmar’s excellent daily coverage from inside the country.

Interfaith Iftar Against Business as Usual

iftar

This is our first Iftar event and we’d love you to join us.

Please join us for prayers and a panel discussion with Imam Catovic from GreenFaith, Alan Senauke from Engaged Buddhists, Jan Jan Maran from STAND and Simon Billenness from the International Campaign for the Rohingya.

This is an online event so you can join us from anywhere. Click here to join us.

If you would like to help us continue our work to help the Rohingya, please consider making a donation by going here. You can learn more about our emergency fund here.

This Ramadan, let’s support the Rohingya

ramadan

This Ramadan, we ask that you turn your support into a gift that helps amplify the voices of the Rohingya worldwide.

We’re proud that the board, staff, and supporters of the International Campaign for the Rohingya include people of all faiths. We also have a deep appreciation for the strong support of the Rohingya among Muslim communities worldwide. This Ramadan, we hope you will help us continue our important work.

Two donors, the Meah Family Foundation and the Louis Kraar Memorial Fund, have generously given to scale up our successful work. They are asking you to match or exceed their $20,000 gift.

This Emergency Challenge Fund For a New Myanmar will build up our successful campaigns to hold the Myanmar military accountable for its genocide against the Rohingya and its other atrocities.

The International Campaign for the Rohingya is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and its EIN is 81-4234076. Your gift is tax-deductible as a charitable contribution.  To donate, you can click here.

If you are available on April 28 at 7:00 pm EDT, we are holding our first Iftar event. You can learn more about that here.

You may also mail a check to:

International Campaign for the Rohingya
PO Box 48698
Washington, DC 20002-0698

Send us a PayPal payment to: [email protected]