News

Sanction Companies Doing Business with Burma's Military Junta
By David L. Phillips
Monday, March 1, 2021

The Biden administration will ratchet-up sanctions against Burma’s military junta in response to its coup and crackdown against civil society. To be effective in changing the junta’s behavior, sanctions will require a multilateral approach involving Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Secondary sanctions on businesses buying raw materials from Burmese companies, including banks handling the transactions, could also affect the junta’s calculation. China must suspend its business with extractive industries controlled by the junta.

No Nuclear Diplomacy Until Iran Stops Supporting Shiite Militias in Iraq
by David L. Phillips
Friday, February 26, 2021

US airstrikes in Syria on February 25 targeted bases near the Iraqi border used by Iranian-backed militia groups, known as “Popular Mobilization Units (PMUs).” The strikes were retaliation for recent rocket attacks on US facilities in the Kurdistan Region’s capital of Erbil. Iran’s support for foreign terrorist organizations – Kata’ib Hezbollah and Kataeb Sayyid al-Shuhada in Syria and Iraq – is an impediment to diplomacy. The US should not consider negotiations with Iran on renewing the nuclear accord until Iran stops inciting violence by the PMUs.

Fellow Highlight
Wednesday, February 24, 2021

AHDA alumna (2019) Dorcas Francis organized and led training on the topic of Dialogue on Tribalism with four groups of secondary school students in Juba, South Sudan in February 2021. 

Don't Forget Tibetans
By David L. Phillips
Tuesday, February 23, 2021

The Biden administration is focused on human rights abuses of Uighur in Xinjiang. But Uighur are not the only ethnic or religious group targeted by China’s security state. Other Muslims and Christians are persecuted, as are Tibetans who have suffered decades of draconian rule by the Chinese Communist Party (CPC). While the U.S. may seek to influence China’s treatment of Tibetans through its Special Coordinator on Tibetan Issues, efforts to protect and promote Tibetan culture can have the greatest impact when undertaken with allies in Asia and Europe.

UNDEF Supports 2016 Advocate
Tuesday, February 23, 2021

With the support of the United Nations Democracy Fund, 2016 Advocate Raoul Kitungano Mulondani and his team at Justice for All organized a training for 30 journalists from South Kivu and Bukavu, the DRC. The journalists learned how to report on the collection and allocation of subnational revenues in the mining sector in an effort to monitor mining royalties and ensure that local communities receive fair profits from mining.

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