18 May 2005 [English]

House of Commons
Chambre des Communes
Ottawa, Canada

38th Parliament, 1st Session

The Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade has the honour to
present its

SECOND REPORT

In accordance with its mandate under Standing Order 108 (2) and the motion adopted
on October 14, 2004 by the Committee, its Subcommittee on Human Rights and
International Development has considered the issue of Human Rights in Burma and
recommends the following:

That the Committee is of the opinion that the government must:

a) condemn more forcefully the repeated and systematic human rights violations
committed by the military junta in power in Burma, particularly those involving
certain minority groups, including arrests and imprisonment without trial, summary
and arbitrary executions, torture, rape, kidnappings of women, men and children,
forced labor, denial of fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of assembly,
association and expression, the recruitment of child soldiers and massive
relocations of civilian populations;

b) urge the authorities in Burma to release immediately and unconditionally all
political prisoners, in particular Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the
National League for Democracy (NLD), to end their harassment of them, to abolish all
repressive laws and measures contravening international human rights conventions,
and to take action to end the appalling humanitarian crisis facing hundreds of
thousands of displaced people and refugees at Burma's borders (with China, India,
Bangladesh and Thailand);

c) provide tangible support to the legitimate authorities in Burma, specifically the
government in exile (the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma) and
the Committee Representing the People's Parliament;

d) impose more comprehensive economic measures on Burma, and in particular:

- review the effectiveness of the Export and Import Permits Act;

- review the feasibility of fully invoking the Special Economic Measure Act; and

- impose a legal ban on further investment in Burma

e) bring pressure to bear on the United Nations Secretary General and the
international community, in order to establish a framework, primarily though
ensuring the spread of embargo, to bring the military junta to negotiate a peaceful
transition toward democracy, in cooperation with the NLD and representatives of
ethnic minority groups, as set out in all the resolutions of the United Nations on
Burma since 1994;

f) call upon the authorities in Burma to include the National League for Democracy
(NLD) and other political parties in the on-going process of the National
Convention, and warn that any outcome from the convention without the participation of the NLD and other parties will not be recognized.