Elections in Burma are scheduled for November 7. The military government claims that this is a step toward real democracy, but all signs point the other way.

Under the leadership of our sister Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the main opposition party—the National League for Democracy—recently chose to dissolve rather than take part in a flawed electoral process. It believes the elections will be a sham and further entrench the military junta’s fierce grip on power. Under this regime, violence and abuse of basic human rights have been a daily reality in Burma for decades.

Meanwhile, Suu Kyi marked her sixty-fifth birthday on June 19, as well as her fourteenth year under house arrest. It’s been twenty years since she was democratically elected by the people of Burma to be their leader.

The elections will be based on a constitution that was created and ratified without consultation with civil society, including the women of Burma. The constitution also effectively hinders the participation of women in political office, including the generation of women inspired by the example of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Under such circumstances and in the face of decades of crimes and abuses against the peoples of Burma by the military regime, the international community should unite in its refusal to accept either the upcoming elections or any government that results from them as legitimate.

It is time for the international community to show at least as much courage as the women of Burma. Their leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has dedicated her life—one of great personal loss and privation—to democracy for her country. The women who testified at the tribunal in New York also refuse to silently accept non-action. Instead, they are speaking out in the hope that doing so will lead to real change for their country. We believe that it will.

In honor of Aung San Suu Kyi and the resilient women of Burma, the international community must stand with the people of Burma in their struggle for justice and democracy. It is time not only for the establishment of a commission of inquiry but also for the international community to denounce the upcoming elections as the sham that they are.

This is but a short excerpt from the column by Shirin Ebadi and Jody Williams in the November issue of The Progressive. To read the entire column and to subscribe to The Progressive for only $14.97 for a year, simply subscribe now by clicking here.