REPORTS

Training Manual on Human Rights for Former Political Prisoners of Myanmar

11/27/2017

Over the course of Myanmar’s long and repressive recent political history, thousands of Myanmar citizens were arrested and jailed, simply for exercising their fundamental human rights. From the 88 Generation Protests to the Saffron Revolution, protesters, activists, journalists, lawyers, students and peaceful citizens of all stripes have paid for their dissent with their freedom.

Now, as Myanmar begins its long and overdue transition from military rule towards a democratic and free society, these former political prisoners have a critical role to play in the future of Myanmar. In order to contribute to the tools available to the former political prisoner community as it engages in the task ahead, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, in collaboration with Partnership for Change and Equality Myanmar, has worked with the former political prisoner community to produce this manual.

It is a manual by and for the community of former political prisoners and their supporters. It has been developed with the input and contribution of former political prisoners, with the express intent of developing a tool that was built especially for them. In addition, we have been training former political prisoners on how to use this manual to engage with their community more broadly, allowing the impact of the manual to be felt beyond this specific community.