Use Your Freedom is an international movement leveraging non-violent digital activism to spotlight the unjust imprisonment of Myanmar's democratically elected leaders. Read on to find interviews, articles, audio and video, and to download our freely available book, Aung San Suu Kyi from Prison - And a Letter to a Dictator.
To all leaders, organizations and people of conscience worldwide: Now is the time to unite in solidarity for the people of Burma (Myanmar)
On February 1, 2021, Burma’s democratically elected government was overthrown and imprisoned through a rogue military dictatorship’s coup d’etat
Subsequently, the dictatorship has engaged in a genocide of democracy, displacing 2.5 million people and imprisoning 20,000 political prisoners. Without the guidance of wise, democratic civilian leadership, Burma faces the escalating horrors of nationwide war, atrocity, and institutionalized torture
Join us in the GLOBAL campaign to Use Your Freedom
FREE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE AUNG SAN SUU KYI! FREE President Win Myint! FREE all unlawfully imprisoned elected leaders!
For the sake of Burma's future and its people's dignity, the immediate release of its 20,000 political prisoners is not just an urgent necessity—
it is a moral imperative.
Now is the time to act in unity, for the sake of Burma's future and the principles that are the bedrock of our shared humanity.
In a world increasingly divided, there comes a time when we must transcend our differences and unite for a cause greater than any individual viewpoint, where we must have the courage to care for things larger than our own self-interest. Today, that cause is the dire situation in Burma (Myanmar), where the decades-long fight for democracy, human rights and freedom has reached a critical juncture.
Burma's elected leaders, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint, along with thousands of other political prisoners, languish in detention under a brutal military regime. Their imprisonment is not just a tragedy for them and their families but a devastating blow to the principles of democracy and human rights that we hold most dear.
The Use Your Freedom Global Campaign was launched in 2023 by The Buddha Sasana Foundation, a 501(c) non-profit advocating for democracy, human rights and rule of law in Burma since 1988.
Founded by author, correspondent, investigative journalist and former Buddhist monk in Burma, Alan Clements, the Buddha Sasana Foundation has created and distributed books, interviews, video, radio, podcast and other media in support of Burma's grassroots nonviolent movement for democracy for decades.
In 1996, Alan Published "The Voice of Hope: Conversations with Aung San Suu Kyi", a bestselling account of six months of underground dialogue with Suu Kyi, capturing her spiritual and political philosophy in an intimate and definitive format.
Clement's most recent work includes the definitive, four-volume set of feature interviews with key members of Burma's democratic movement from 2013 - 2020, Burma's Voices of Freedom, co-authored with Fergus Harlow. In early 2023, Aung San Suu Kyi from Prison - and a Letter to a Dictator was released, before Clements and Harlow opted to make the work freely available through this website.
- Read former ambassador Derek Tomkin's "In Defence of Aung San Suu Kyi", based on our work, in The Lowy Institute's The Interpreter, 2024
- Read "The Silencing of Aung San Suu Kyi", Use Your Freedom Campaign Director Fergus Harlow's feature interview with Suu Kyi's son, Kim Aris, 2024
- Read "The Rohingya Crisis Merits Reconciliation" in The Bangkok Post, by Alan Clements, September 2024
- Read "Dhaka's role in Myanmar's crisis," an op-ed by Alan Clements in The Bangkok Post, August 2024
- Read a review of Burma's Voices of Freedom in The Irrawaddy
- Read a review of Burma's Voices of Freedom in The South China Morning Post
Our mission with the Use Your Freedom Global Campaign is unequivocally clear: to secure the immediate release of Burma's democratically elected leaders and all political prisoners. This mission transcends political affiliations and ethnic divides. It is a call to every individual who believes in justice, rule of law, and the intrinsic value of human freedom.
This campaign is not about one person or one group, it is about the collective struggle for a free and democratic Burma, where all ethnicities and communities can live together in peace.
We urge global leaders, governments, artists, authors, influencers and citizens of all nations worldwide to demand their immediate release, stop the military's mass violence against all ethnic groups, and pave the way for democracy, rule of law, peace, and prevention of social collapse.
Why Your Support is Crucial
International Awareness: By joining us, you help amplify our call to the international community, making it impossible for the plight of Burma's 54 million people and 132 ethnicities to be ignored.
Human Rights Advocacy: Your voice adds weight to our demand for the respect of universal human rights, and the urgent need to end the systemic oppression of Myanmar.
Solidarity in Action: Your participation is a testament to global solidarity, showing the we stand together against tyranny and injustice.
"The establishment of an independent judiciary … and the release of prisoners of conscience ... Without these two conditions, all conciliatory gestures are ultimately meaningless." ~ Aung San Suu Kyi, June 2011
Aung San Suu Kyi's political party, The National League for Democracy, won a national election in 1990 by a landslide. The ruling military dictatorship annulled the result and imprisoned many of its politicians and activists.
Despite this, in 2012, after decades of imprisonment and torture, the National League for Democracy won a national by-election by a supermajority, taking 44 out of 45 contested seats.
In 2015, The National League for Democracy once again won a national election by a landslide. This time, the ruling military junta allowed them to form a civilian government.
Meanwhile, the military continued to rule as an autonomous parallel government with full control over the police, military and all security concerns.
In 2020, The National League for Democracy won a second national election by an overwhelming majority. It looked as though a decades long non-violent resistance to military rule was winning.
The dictatorship then engaged in a coup d’etat, unlawfully imprisoning Myanmar’s elected leaders, including President Win Myint and the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Just like in 1990, when the NLD's landslide election victory was overturned, Burma once more needs its “revolution of the spirit” amplified and reinvigorated so that the people may uproot the military from its unelected rule.
Though the courage and resilience of the people of Burma is legendary,
we must use our freedom to promote their own
Burma cannot find its way out of the darkness of dictatorship without its celebrated democratic advocates, activists and leaders
