Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] said [AI report] Thursday that Myanmar’s new government has been presented with a historic opportunity to change course on human rights, but that doing so would mean making a commitment to break away from its previous “deeply repressive legal framework that for years has fueled arbitrary arrests and repression.” In a newly published research report [text, PDF], AI urged Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) [party website] party to immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience upon assuming office. According to the report, almost 100 prisoners of conscience are still behind bars in Myanmar today, while hundreds of other peaceful activists are in detention or waiting for their trials to end. The prisoners of conscience include journalists, human rights activists, labor rights leaders, land activists and students who “have been threatened, harassed and jailed for nothing but peacefully speaking their minds.” The report further states that the repression and arrests of activists have continued since the November elections. AI’s South East Asia Director, Champa Patel stated that “the task facing Aung San Suu Kyi [BBC profile] and the NLD is huge—they have to ensure that their actions are not controlled by the repressive laws they will inherit.” According to Patel, despite the NLD party’s landslide election victory, Myanmar’s flawed constitution, as it stands, puts the military in charge of several key institutions such as the Ministry of Home Affairs, Police and general administration of the country. Patel said that “The NLD-led government has a golden opportunity to effect human rights change” but that the international community will need to make a commitment to back the new government in implementing these important changes.

In January Myanmar began the process of releasing [JURIST report] the first set of 102 mostly political prisoners days before a democratic power transfer takes place in Myanmar’s parliament. Earlier the same month Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] urged Myanmar to release all remaining prisoners currently being held for political and religious violations. The NLD party, which won the national election [JURIST report] last November, promised [Myanmar Times report] that there will be no political prisoners when they take office in late March. However, HRW Asia Director Phil Robertson had stressed [HRW report] that current Myanmar President Thein Sein should immediately fulfill a similar promise he made in 2012.