The regional conference “Democratic Change by the People: Asia-Pacific Partnership on Burma” was an excellent gathering of various activists – human rights, environmental rights, womens rights, migrant workers rights, refugee rights, trade union rights and others – from around the world, including the Thai-Burma border, working on restoration of democracy in Burma.
The regional conference “Democratic Change by the People: Asia-Pacific Partnership on Burma” was an excellent gathering of various activists – human rights, environmental rights, womens rights, migrant workers rights, refugee rights, trade union rights and others – from around the world, including the Thai-Burma border, working on restoration of democracy in Burma.
Eighty participants representing 47 organisations from 16 countries attended the event held in Chiang Mai, north of Thailand, organised by the Forum for Democracy in Burma (FDB), FA and the Alternative Asean Network on Burma (Altsean-Burma).
According to FORUM-ASIA’s Women and Gender Issues programme coordinator Ruchi Yadav, participants included the 88 – Generation students, Members of Parliament in exile after the 1990 multi-party general elections, NGOs working along the Thai-Burma border, representatives from ethnic groups, regional organizations, International Burma support groups and academics, amongst others.
“This presence of varied voices contributed to both the depth and range of discussion at the conference, where the purpose of the event was to establish partnership with Burma support groups across the Asia-Pacific region; to develop and implement a common strategy to mobilize concrete and coordinated regional civil society movement for Burma; and to strengthen the support of civil societies to AIPMC and national parliamentary caucuses on Burma,” she said.
“A key concern at the conference was that it has been too long since the 88 student movement for restoration of democracy and the 1990 elections. There is a need to renew efforts to accelerate the move towards restoration of democracy in Burma by strong advocacy at the International level, especially with the UN Security Council and the neighboring countries including ASEAN,” she added.
