Can the UN investigate alleged serious human rights and laws-of-war violations committed in Burma?
The United Nations has established many commissions of inquiries in the past to investigate violations of international law, but never with respect to Burma. The United Nations has issued highly critical human rights reports on Burma annually for nearly two decades, and these reports frequently demonstrate that serious crimes by government security forces are widespread and systematic. Human Rights Watch believes that it is not enough to simply continue to document and publish reports on the human rights situation in Burma. Instead, the UN should use its existing reports as a basis for establishing an impartial international commission of inquiry that can investigate and determine the extent to which international crimes have been committed, with a view bringing justice to the victims and holding perpetrators to account. Human Rights Watch urges the UN General Assembly to adopt a resolution in which it requests the UN secretary-general to establish such a Commission of Inquiry. How eff
