10.30am - 12pm, Wednesday 5 September 2012

Free

 

The Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) would like to invite you to the launch of the report 'Threats to Our Existence': Persecution of Ethnic Chin Christians in Burma" on Wednesday 5 September 2012, from 10.30am-12pm at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand in Bangkok.
 
The report examines the issue of freedom of religion for ethnic Chin Christians, both under previous military regimes, and the current nominally-civilian government in Burma. The report exposes serious ongoing human rights violations, even as the government claims to deepen its reforms in the country.

For years, state-sanctioned deep-rooted discrimination against the Chin on the dual basis of their ethnicity and religion has given rise to widespread and systematic violations of fundamental human rights, particularly religious freedom. Based on over 100 qualitative interviews and in-depth research conducted over the past two years, the report reveals that the Chin continue to be denied religious freedom and are targeted for induced and coerced conversion to Buddhism, in pursuance of an unwritten State policy of forced assimilation.

In publishing this report CHRO hopes to deepen understanding of religious freedom violations in Burma, and their far-reaching impact. CHRO also aims to highlight the urgent need to place minority and indigenous rights at the heart of the democratic transition process in the country.

Speakers:

Salai Za Uk Ling is the Program Director at CHRO who has been working with the organization for more than 12 years. He is the co-author of CHRO's 2004 report Religious Persecution: A Campaign of Ethnocide against Chin Christians in Burma. He has travelled around the world to lobby governments and the United Nations to promote religious freedom in Burma.

Rachel Fleming is CHRO's Advocacy Director, and author of "'Threats to Our Existence': Persecution of Ethnic Chin Christians in Burma."  She has been based on the Thai-Burma border since 2008, and began working with CHRO in early 2010.  Prior to that she worked for the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners - Burma, and Amnesty International.

For further information, please email info@chro.ca

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