Human Rights Education in Myanmar (Burma)
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)

F

ollowing the peaceful, student-led uprisings in 1988, many activists were arrested and subjected to long, harsh prison sentences. The
Saffron Revolution in 2007, led by Buddhist monks, saw hundreds ofthousands of people protesting the regime and a huge increase in the numberof political prisoners. From the one-party state under the Burmese Socialist
Party Program (bspp) to the military dictatorship of the State Law andOrder Restoration Council (slorc), later the State Peace and Development
Council (spdc), and finally to the military-backed government of Thein Sein
— opposition groups struggled in a landscape dominated by the regime.
Due to this intolerance, journalists, political activists, ethnic nationalists,and human rights defenders risked imprisonment because of their politicalbeliefs and activities. They would not only be handed down harsh sentences,
but also treated badly while in detention. Torture continues to be a common
occurrence during interrogation to elicit false confessions and individuals
can be imprisoned in remote locations, far away from their families, making
family visitation difficult.
In 2011, the nominally civilian Thein Sein administration initiated aseries of political prisoner releases. One major release of hundreds of political prisoners on 13 January 2012 was considered a watershed in Burma’s
democratic aspirations. In one fell swoop, a high proportion of prominent
activists such as 88 Generation leaders (Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi),
Journalists (Zaw Htet Htwe and Hla Hla Win), Monk leader (U Gambira),and Shan ethnic leader (Khun Htun Oo), were also released. While the releases of political prisoners were celebrated, they were released into an environment that repressed basic civil and political liberties; where the threatof re-arrest was ever present.
Burma continued to be institutionally dominated by the military, brutally repressing the democratic opposition until November 2015 when Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi’s Party, the National League for Democracy (nld), won
the general elections in a landslide victory, resulting in the first democratically-elected civilian government in half a century. The nld officially took
power in March 2016 with the inauguration of President U Htin Kyaw. Aung
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H U M A N R I G H T S E D U C AT I O N I N A S I A - PA C I F I CSan Suu Kyi was unable to take the official party title of “President” due tostipulations outlined in the military drafted 2008 Constitution.
The new democratic government has presented new opportunities forlegislative and policy reform and even some hope for the political prisoners’ situation. On 17-18 April 2016, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President
U Htin Kyaw respectively granted mass amnesty to a total of one hundred
ninety-eight political prisoners across the two days. However, despite promises to release all remaining political prisoners, lobbying and campaigning
for the release of hundreds of incarcerated individuals continue. There arestill arrests, detentions, denial of bail, and harsh prosecutions of those who
exercise their right to freedom of expression and for publicly criticizing or
challenging the policies and actions of the government, the military, andits officials. People accused of committing these crimes are also frequently
charged under a combination of these laws, resulting in even more severe
and lengthy sentences. Individuals arrested and charged with these offences
are rarely granted bail and are often held in prison for months awaiting trial.
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (aapp) was founded on 23
March 2000, the 11th anniversary of the arrest of Min Ko Naing, a student
leader and prominent figure during the 1988 uprising who spent nineteen
years in prison for his political activism. From 2000 to the present, aapp has
its headquarters in Mae Sot, Thailand, due to the exile of most aapp teammembers. Aapp has successfully adapted to the on-going political transformations within Burma. Since 2012, the Burmese government has released agreat number of political prisoners, and most of the former political prisoners involved with aapp have now been removed from the government’s
blacklist, which allowed it to open another office in Rangoon. As such, aappsaw an opportunity to further develop efficient nation-wide assistance programs to meet the needs of those released from prison.
In 2013, aapp helped secure the release of a total of three hundred
eighty political prisoners.
Aapp was a key member of the Committee for Scrutinizing theRemaining Political Prisoners (csrpp) of the government since its formation in January 2013 until its disbandment at the beginning of 2015. Despite
aapp’s dedication and central role in the csrpp, the government chose

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to exclude aapp from the new body, the Prisoners of Conscience Affairs
Committee, formed in January 2015. Aapp continues to campaign for the
release of all remaining political prisoners. In 2018, despite promises fromthe nld to release all remaining political prisoners, aapp still holds recordsof sentenced and incarcerated political prisoners, and hundreds of individuals awaiting trial for politically motivated actions.
As long as political prisoners exist inside Burma, the country will not be
free. They represent the struggle for democracy, human rights, equality, andfreedom for the people of Burma. This makes the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners an integral part of Burma’s transition
to democracy and the drive for national reconciliation.
Core Activities
As core activities, aapp
• Provides humanitarian assistance and vocational/educational
training to current and former political prisoners and their families,• Offers mental health counselling services through the Mental
Health Assistance Program (mhap) to current and former political prisoners, their family members, and members of the general
population, and training community-based organizations (cbos) inmental health counselling,• Promotes and protects human rights by delivering human rights
awareness sessions to students in Government State High Schools
and Universities as well as training on human rights, human rights
documentation, and transitional justice to civil society organizations (csos), lawmakers, and the public in Burma to increase thecapacity of these stakeholders to protect human, civil, and politicalrights,• Monitors and documents political prisoner cases, prison conditions, and violations of human rights,• Publishes reports related to political prisoner issues based ontrends identified through monitoring and documentation as well astranslations of international human rights treaties,• Collaborates with civil society organizations (csos), governments,
and international organizations on prison reform as well as institu-

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tional, legislative, and policy reforms relating to civil and politicalrights, andAdvocates for the amendment/repeal of repressive laws and lobby the government to sign and ratify international human rights
treaties.

Aapp is widely recognized as a reliable and credible source of information on Burmese political prisoner issues by the United Nations, foreign
governments, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and respected
media outlets around the world.
Human Rights, Human Rights Documentation, and Transitional Justice Training
Aapp provides training on human rights, human rights documentation,and transitional justice to former political prisoners, members of politicalparties including the nld, Union Solidarity and Development Party (usdp),
regional parliaments, activists, and other stakeholders in the human rights
arena to protect and promote human rights. Aapp firmly believes that astrong knowledge of human rights is necessary for protecting human rights.
The training provides participants with a firm knowledge of human rights
and citizenship rights and responsibilities. One major benefit of the trainingis that it creates an oversight body among civil society members, as they areable to monitor human rights violations in their area. Furthermore, increasing lawmakers’ knowledge of human rights facilitates the amendment andreview of legislation in line with international human rights standards.
Structure of Training Program
Each training session generally lasts for eleven days, six days on humanrights and human rights documentation, and five days on transitional justice. The main aim of the human rights training is raising awareness of human rights issues. At the beginning of the training, participants are asked
about their expectations of the training and their understanding of humanrights. Next, they are taught about basic human rights, concepts including
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (udhr) and the history of human rights. They analyze human rights violations, particularly those perpetrated by the Burmese government, and how to monitor, document, andHuman Rights Education in Myanmar (Burma)

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prevent them. Group discussions give participants the chance to actively
take part and reflect upon their own knowledge and understanding of human rights concepts. Participants also get the opportunity to familiarize
themselves with civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights in comparison to the udhr. All contents of the training are taught in relation to
the Burmese context, the 2008 Constitution and its National Human Rights
Commission Law to make the participants develop ideas on how to improve
the human rights situation in Burma.
The transitional justice training helps participants gain an understanding of the theory and concepts behind transitional justice. They learn thattransitional justice is not about revenge, but about reparation, truth, justice,and institutional reform. Additionally, they learn about the importance ofthe documentation process and the need for practical and systematic information gathering. Case studies and lessons learned from transitional justicemechanisms in other contexts are provided to illustrate the application ofthese theories.
As part of the series of regular trainings on Transitional Justice, aappheld one long training in October 2017. An eleven-day training (4-14
October 2017) was organized in Bhamaw Township, Kachin State. The training was administered by aapps Human Rights Trainer, Ma Zun Pan, andHuman Rights Documentation and Transitional Justice Trainer, Ko Kyaw
Oo. A total of twenty-eight people including seventeen females and elevenmales from Good Hope Foundation, Buga Ning Shaung, and 88 Thway Tit
participated in the training. The students were from Burmese, Shan-Kachin,and Kachin backgrounds. This region faces issues with land confiscation andarbitrary detention.
Advanced Training Session
Aapp holds two advanced training sessions per year. The advanced training session serves as a capacity-building measure, aiming to enable the participants to act using the democratic system. In 2017, two advanced training sessions were held in May Myo, Mandalay Division, and Thanbyuzayat
Mon State. The participants were given in-depth details of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (iccpr), the International Covenant on
Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (icescr), and the 2008 Constitution.
Participants included former political prisoners, ethnic youth, and repre-

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sentatives of civil society organizations. Participants for advanced trainings
are identified during the prior training sessions that they attended.
On 9-20 November 2017, a twelve-day advanced training session washeld in Thanbyuzayat Township, Mon State. The training was administeredby aapp Human Rights Trainer, Ko Saw Than Hlaing, and Human Rights,
Human Rights Documentation and Transitional Justice Trainer, Ko Sai
Myint Thu. Twenty-two participants including thirteen females and ninemales from aapp, nld, Human Rights Foundation of Mon Land (hurfom),
Network for Social Development Peace (nsdp), Mon Youth Organization(myo), Dawei Women Union, Karen Student Union, Youth Network, Kyone
Doe Youth Network, Aung Lan Youth Network, Yesagyo Youth Network, A
Nyar Myay Peace Network, Lann Pya Kyal Sin, Mar Ga Youth, and Rays ofLights Organizations attended the training sessions.
Expansion of the Training Program
Since aapp started to provide the trainings in 2014, they have rapidly gained
momentum. The Human Rights and Transitional Justice trainings have beenrequested in different townships and by a range of different participants.
Responding to this demand, aapp expanded the reach of the trainings todifferent states and divisions and adapted the training programs to suit theneeds of different participants.

Training in Mawlamyine township, Mon State.

Human Rights Education in Myanmar (Burma)

173(Above and below) Advanced training at Asia Light Monastery, Pyin-oo-lwin Township.

Originally, the intent of these training sessions was to provide former
political prisoners with skills and expertise to allow them to reintegrate backinto society and become valued and confident members of the community
once again. However, the success of aapp trainings resulted in expansion to
new groups of participants. Based initially on word of mouth from former

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participants, the news of aapp trainings spread to ethnic youth, various political party members, civil society organizations, and members of ethnic
armed organizations. They approached aapp to join the training, and aapp,recognizing the opportunity and importance of including these groups into
the trainings, began to include a wider demographic of individuals in the
program.
Table 1 details the locations and dates of trainings across 2017.
Originally these trainings were only conducted in Mandalay, but aapp now
conducts these trainings over nine states and divisions. Aapps ability to expand like this was due to the increased demand for trainings coupled with astrong relationship with regional governments and Members of Parliament(MPs) who allowed aapp to conduct trainings in these areas without fear ofconsequences.
Table 1. 2017 Human Rights, Human Rights Documentation, and Transitional Justice Trainings

Location

Date

Yenanyoung Township, Magwe Division

January 6-16

Myitkyina Township, Kachin State

January 16-26

Mogoung Township, Kachin State

January 31 – February 9

Budalin Township, Sagaing Division

February 16-27

Palaw Township, Tenasserim Division

March 7-18

Tamu Township, Sagaing Division

March 16-26

Thahton Township, Mon State

March 20-31

Bilin, Mon State

April 1-11

Downtown Kalay, Sagaing Division

April 20-30

Ma Mone Kai, Kachin StateMay 3-13

Kyaington, Shan state

May 7-17

Tachilaik, Shan StateMay 19-30

Hpa-an, Karen State

June 3-14

Kyaukme, Shan State

June 9-19

Kwakeirik, Karen State

June 16-26

Thandwe, Arakan State

August 13-24

Salin, Magway Division

August 16-26

Yesagyo, Magwe Division

September 6-16

Zayarwaddy, Eastern Bago

September 24-29

Bamaw, Kachin State

October 4-14

Thanbyuzayat Township, Mon State

November 9-20

Taunggyi City, Shan State

December 12-16

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Human Rights Lectures
Under the military-backed regime of U Thein Sein, it was impossible to conduct human rights lectures in government schools. Under the new nld government, the influence of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and aapp’s relationshipwith many Members of Parliament and lawmakers, aapp have been able tohold human rights lectures in government-run schools.
The government still does not have any policy in place to teach humanrights. Using Thailand as an example to show the disparities between Burmaand other asean nations, Thai students are introduced to human rights ingrade 7. In Burma, only law students learn about the subject and even then,
only in their third year of university. This lack of information extends toteachers as well – it is not just that human rights are not being taught inschools, but that the lack of knowledge about the topic is true throughout
the country and across all ages.
Aapp wants to teach students and teachers their own rights, but also
their responsibility to abide by the law and protect others’ rights. This initiative is an awareness campaign, with the aim of raising awareness to not
only teachers and students, but also stakeholders and policymakers. The
lectures, focusing on human rights generally (including teaching the udhr)
and child rights, are acting as a direct message to the government on the importance of including human rights in school curriculums nationwide. The
lectures were first held in eight state schools in the Yangon Region and threestate schools in Bago in 2016. The provision of lectures expanded widely in
2017, from eleven to seventy-two schools, after gaining permission from theregion’s chief minister and the Ministry of Education.1 Aapp streams thelectures on social media, and report on them monthly in the newsletter.
Coupled with the success of the activities and word of mouth from participating schools, the demand from other regions and states increased. Due toits strong relationships with regional governments and MPs, aapp was able
to accommodate the increased demand, and expand the program.
According to Pyay Township Education Officer, Daw Mar Mar Zin, “Thehuman rights introduction program is starting in the schools [in] our town
under an agreement [with] the Government and the Education Ministry inPyay”2
As reported in The Irrawaddy online newspaper, aapp’s two-hour curriculum introduces the udhr and the Convention on the Rights of the Child176

H U M A N R I G H T S E D U C AT I O N I N A S I A - PA C I F I Cwith cartoons, videos, talks, and insights from human rights educators andactivists.
Quoting the head of aapp’s Rangoon Office, Ko Aung Myo Kyaw,3We aim to acknowledge respect for each other’s humanrights and fundamental freedoms for the students.
The news article continued to explain that anywhere from one hundred
to seven hundred students joined the training sessions at each school. The
program began on 1 August 2017 and concluded on 30 September 2017.
aapp visited the Taung Gyi and Monywa districts to check on the progressof participants and instructors.
Ko Aung Myo Kyaw added,
We found out that even the teachers didn’t clearly knowwhat human rights were. They were also actively interested inprogram, and they asked for a CD and training [guidance] forfurther teaching in the classes. Some requested that we talkabout responsibilities as well in the topics. We are glad to get
this chance as a discussion for promoting human rights.
In 2017, aapp conducted one hundred fifty-eight lectures acrossBago, Rangoon, Irrawaddy, Magwe, Sagaing, and Tenesserim Divisions,and Shan and Chin States reaching approximately 57,000 individuals. See Table 2 for the details of the human rights lectures held.
Table 2. Human Rights Lectures
Month

Location

Number of Lectures

Number ofParticipants

January

Rangoon Division
Bago Division
Irrawaddy Division16

6,000+

February

Magwe Division
Mon State

32,000+March

Tenesserim Division
Sagaing Division,
Mon State
Chin State

13

4,000+

April

Shan State

7

700+

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May

Bago Division
Rangoon Division
Mon State

7

400+

June

Bago Division

1

700+

July

N/A

N/A

N/A

AugustBago Division
Rangoon Division

35

Approx. 12,748

September

Bago Division30

14,503+October

Bago Division

13

4,101+

November

Shan State

26

9,394+

December

Bago Division7

2,340+

Human Rights Awareness Teaching and Learning Materials
To make these trainings as effective, digestible, and informative as possible,
aapp use visual aids. Aapp created informative udhr posters which aredisplayed around the training locations and, in conjunction with Human
Rights Education Institute of Burma (hreib), udhr booklets. Aapp provide
to participants the local language version of the udhr translated by hreib.
Aapp looks to expanding its trainings and once accomplished it will begin
to produce training materials in ethnic languages to reach more people than
before.

Basic Education High School (1), Bago Township.

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Basic Education High School (1), Thingangyun Township.

Computer University (Taungoo), Taungoo Township.

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What Have We Learned?
It is clear that the training has had an immense impact on participants.
Participant feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Many participants
expressed the need for more training in their area. Further testament to
the impact of the training was an invitation to aapp from the Chairpersonof Irrawaddy Regional Parliament to hold a workshop in the Regional
Parliament in Pathein, Irrawaddy Division. This was the first opportunity foraapp to work with the Regional Parliament. Over the three days of training,
the participants learned about human rights, the udhr and other conventions, democracy, the role of government, and how to apply these ideas in
the context of Burma.
Aside from providing participants with valuable skills and knowledge
about human rights and transitional justice, the training programs provide
insight into the different human rights violations affecting the different regions of Burma, provide training and advice to human rights defenders on
how they can be documented and their issues adequately addressed.
The sessions are particularly valuable in helping to reform the politicalenvironment in Burma. They not only allow for more comprehensive documentation of human rights violations throughout the country, but also allow civil society to better engage in discussions involving transitional justicemechanisms and facilitate their engagement in the national reconciliation
process.
The training program and human rights lectures are two of aapp’s key
activities. Aapp are aware that training and educating the whole country
is a huge goal. While aapp welcomes any and all to its activities, it targets
change makers including the members of the civil society and law/policymakers for the trainings, and students and the next generation (as they will
constitute the future) for the human rights lectures. Both these activities areprojects that will not come to an end any time soon. They are much-needed,essential projects that the people of Burma deserve to have access to after
sixty years of authoritarian control. Aapp will continue advocating for theunconditional release of political prisoners until there are none left, as while
one individual is imprisoned for political reasons, Burma cannot be free.
It will continue fighting for human, civil, and political rights until Burmareaches true democracy; and if and when this is achieved, it will continue
working towards nationwide human rights education.

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Endnotes
1 Thu Thu Aung, “Human Rights Program Launches in High Schools,” The
Irrawaddy, 24 August 2017 Yangon, www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/humanrights-program-launches-high-schools.html.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.