A bipartisan group of U.S. senators have introduced Senate Resolution 34. This resolution puts pressure on the Trump Administration to declare that Burma is committing genocide and to impose sanctions on Burma's military, including the army chief General Min Aung Hlaing.
Ask your U.S. senators to support and co-sponsor Senate Resolution 34 today.
Senate Resolution 34 condemns Myanmar's genocide and crimes against humanity, not just against the Rohingya but other ethnic minorities. The resolution:
Urges the U.S. Secretary of State to make a determination whether the actions by the Burmese military constitute crimes against humanity or genocide.
Urges the U.S. Administration to impose targeted sanctions on Burmese military officials, including the army chief General Min Aung Hlaing.
Calls on the Burmese government to allow full access to Rakhine State and full participation of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
Calls for ensuring that any refugees' return to Burma is voluntary, safe, dignified, and meet international refugee and human rights standards, and that the voices of the refugees are represented.
Calls for Rohingya refugees to be able to return to their places of origin, or other locations as desired.
Calls on the Burmese government to ensure full implementation of the recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, which includes providing equal access to full restoration or granting of full citizenship for the Rohingya population.
Calls on the United States Government to continue to be a top donor nation for humanitarian aid in Burma and Bangladesh.
Ask your U.S. senators to support and co-sponsor Senate Resolution 34 today.
As a voter in the district, your voice is heard by your Members of Congress. Often, all it takes for your U.S. senator to co-sponsor a bill is a phone call from you and five other voters. When Congressional staffers tell me that "we're hearing from our district about the Rohingya," I know that we will likely gain that member's support.
I'm telling you this to ask you to take the next powerful step and pick up your phone.
One or both of your senators may have already co-sponsored Senate Resolution 34.If so, please use the number below to call that senator's office and simply thank them for co-sponsoring the bill.
Click here for a list of the current co-sponsors of Senate Resolution 34.
Call the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your representative's and senators' offices. Or simply search the web for the phone number of their office in Washington, DC.
When you reach your senator's office, ask to be connected to the staffer responsible for foreign policy. (Before being connected, ask for the spelling of the staffer's name and their email address.)
Simply tell the staffer - in person or on their voicemail - to support and co-sponsor Senate Resolution 34 calling for U.S. sanctions on Burma to end the genocide of the Rohingya.
Leave your name, number, and city of residence to indicate that you live in the senator's state.
Follow up with an email to the staffer. (The staffer's email will follow this format: "[first name]_[last name]@[senator's last name].senate.gov".)
Email Simon Billenness at International Campaign for the Rohingya at simon.billenness@rohingyacampaign.org and report back on how your calls went. Let us have the names and emails of the staffers.
And, finally, if this is the level of activism that you'd like to continue, contact me. I'm looking for a few good folks in every state willing to work together to form a local chapter of the International Campaign for the Rohingya. If that's you, let's talk!
When the world says "Never Again" after an incidence of genocide, we have to mean it.
Let’s make this a habit of calling Congress every week until they do the job of putting effective pressure on Burma.
Thank you,
Simon Billenness, Executive Director, The International Campaign for the Rohingya