EU drops Myanmar rights resolution, citing progress under Suu Kyi

The European Union praised Myanmar’s progress on human rights under the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday and said that it would not be introducing a resolution at the United Nations condemning the country’s record for the first time in 15 years.

Addressing the Partnership Group on Myanmar at the United Nations General Assembly, EU Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini called Suu Kyi’s progress from political prisoner to government “powerful testimony to the incredible change Myanmar is going through.”

“The government has taken bold measures to improve human rights and re-invigorate the peace process. Political prisoners have been released,” she said. Mogherini said steps had also “been taken against those who incite hatred” and a commission established under former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to address violence between majority Buddhists and Muslim Rohingyas in Myanmar’s state of Rakhine.

In recognition of the progress, for the first time in fifteen years, the European Union would not table a human rights resolution on Myanmar at the UN assembly, she said.

Addressing Suu Kyi, Mogherini said: “Fifteen years is the measure of the incredible distance Myanmar has walked, the measure of how much your country has changed.”

Mogherini said the European Union understood the “complexity” of the situation in Rakhine and told Suu Kyi: “I know that you area working hard to find a sustainable solution for both communities.”