International Parliamentary Inquiry into the global response to the crisis in Myanmar

A Committee of Concerned Parliamentarians

Over a year ago, on 1 February 2021, the Military staged a coup d’état in Myanmar that overthrew the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD), and put an abrupt end to a decade of democratic reforms. A widely popular civil disobedience movement emerged soon to oppose the military takeover, and the junta led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has been waging a violent war against the Myanmar population ever since in order to forcefully impose its illegal takeover.

The Myanmar Military continues to engage in acts which the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights says may amount to “crimes against humanity and war crimes,” and it is throwing the country into chaos. Yet the global community’s response to the continuing atrocities committed by the Military has fallen woefully short of international obligations and standards, including on  atrocity prevention and humanitarian imperatives, despite repeated expressions of concern.

We, a group of Parliamentarians appalled by the situation in Myanmar from eight different countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe, have decided to launch this International Parliamentary Inquiry to assess the response of international actors to the crisis in Myanmar, with the aim of formulating effective policy recommendations  for courses of action that could end the violence and positively address the urgent needs in the country.