- International Human rights organisation Amnesty International revoked the ‘Ambassador of Conscience Award’ given to Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi. She received the honour in 2009, when she was living under house arrest.
- The rights group said it was profoundly dismayed at her failure to speak out for the Rohingya minority. The organisation, which once feted her as a beacon for democracy, announced its decision on the eighth anniversary of Ms Suu Kyi’s release from house arrest.
- Amnesty’s Ambassador of Conscience Award was bestowed in 2009 and other recipients include Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai and Ai Wei Wei.
- Aung San Suu Kyi’s international reputation as a rights icon is in pieces and Amnesty’s move is the latest in a string of rescinded accolades.
- Canada revoked her honorary citizenship last month and the US Holocaust Museum in March took back an award named after concentration camp survivor Elie Wiesel.
- The Rohingya are a Muslim minority group denied citizenship in Myanmar and therefore are effectively stateless. They have been subjected to a widespread, lengthy campaign of dehumanization, discrimination and violence in Myanmar, including murders, organized rapes and the torching of villages.
- More than 720,000 Rohingya were driven over the border to Bangladesh in a crackdown that started in August 2017, and refugees have detailed horrific testimony of murder, rape, torture and arson.
