Nobel Women's Initiative

Nobel Peace Laureates Shirin Ebadi,  Jody Williams and Thin Thin Aung of the Women's League of Burma met yesterday with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to deliver the findings and recommendations of the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women in Burma, held earlier this week in New York. Thin Thin asked his support in pushing the UN Security Council to implement its own resolutions on violence against women.

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Read some of the stories of the women who are testifying at the tribunal.

We are Live Blogging during the tribunal today.

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On March 2nd twelve Burmese women will bravely tell their stories at the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women of Burma.   In the days leading up to the tribunal we will post portions of the stories of some of these courageous women here.  Today Mia Farrow introduces the women and shares her experiences of meeting some of them when she visited the Thai-Burma border in 2008.

LEARN MORE about the tribunal.

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Burma's Supreme Court began hearing Aung San Suu Kyi's appeal against the 18-month extension of her house arrest on Monday. Her lawyers are optimistic about the outcome and will hear the ruling within a month.

Under Burma's newly adopted constitution, the extension of her arrest means that she will not be eligible to run in this year's pending elections. The military junta has promised its citizens and the international community that elections will be held in 2010, the first time since 1990, although a date has not been set.

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Fourteen Nobel Laureates today released an open letter to the members of the United Nations Security Council. This, in response to the wrongful conviction and sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi --Burma’s democratically elected leader.

Signatories to the open letter include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, President Mikhail Gorbachev, and Nobel Women's Initiative Laureates Shirin Ebadi, Wangari Maathai, Mairead Maguire, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Betty Williams and Jody Williams.

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Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced today to an additional 18 months under house arrest. Suu Kyi was charged with breaching the terms of her house arrest when she offered temporary shelter to an American after he swam to her lakeside home uninvited.

Initially, the court sentenced Suu Kyi to three years imprisonment involving hard labour, but the Burmese military regime announced to the court that they would be reducing her sentence.

Critics have continually charged that Suu Kyi's trial and ongoing detention are attempts by the military junta to keep her out of Burma's 2010 national elections.

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Update:  The verdict, which was expected to be delivered on Friday, July 31st, was postponed to August 11th.  Read more.

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The conclusion of the trial of detained Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been postponed after prosecutors were allowed more time to prepare their final arguments in the case. Suu Kyi's lawyers gave their closing arguments early today, but prosecutors were told to deliver their final arguments on Monday July 27th.

Nyan Win, one of Suu Kyi's lawyers, said that to ensure fairness, the usual practice was for courts to allow both parties to give their closing arguments on the same day.

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Detained Burmese democracy leader and Nobel Peace Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, is spending her 64th birthday in Insein Prison. She has been detained for more than 13 years by the Burmese military junta and was moved to Insein Prison after her arrest on 14 May 2009.

Aung San Suu Kyi has committed no crime.  However, she currently faces a sentence of 3-5 years and a mockery of a trial.  The democratic leader will remain in prison for her 64th birthday.  The charges are widely felt to be an attempt to add trumped-up charges at a time when her unlawful detention was scheduled to end 27 May 2009. View a three-minute video about her here.

In the weeks leading up to Aung San Suu Kyi's 64th birthday, the international community has responded with calls to action against the gross human rights abuses in Burma.  This birthday marks the democratic leader's 14th birthday in detention.

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18 May 2009

Dear Secretary General Ban Ki-moon,

We are writing to you to urge your immediate action against the false imprisonment of our friend and fellow Nobel Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi.  We note that your Spokesperson issued a statement on May 14, 2009 in which you expressed being "gravely concerned about the news that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved to the Insein Prison to face criminal charges."

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's trial, as well as that of her fellow NLD members Daw Khin Khin Win and Daw Win Ma Ma, started today.  The trial is a mockery.  There is no judicial system in Burma. It is clear that this is an excuse by the military junta to add trumped-up charges at a time when Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's unlawful detention was scheduled to end May 27, 2009. Read more »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
14 May 2009




We six women Nobel Peace Laureates—Jody Williams, Mairead Maguire, Shirin Ebadi, Wangari Maathai, Betty Williams and Rigoberta Menchu Tum—call for the immediate release of Burma’s democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi from prison.  We are shocked and appalled by the Burmese junta’s imprisonment of our sister Nobel Peace Laureate.  Already detained under house arrest against Burma’s own laws, her transfer to Burma’s notorious Insein prison is a stark illustration of the brutality and lawlessness of the regime, which now holds more than 2000 democracy activists in prison. Read more »