Aung San Suu Kyi receives Honorary Fellowship

22 June 2012

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's pro-democracy leader, received her Honorary Fellowship from Liverpool John Moores University on Thursday 21 June at the House of Commons, Westminster.  Awarded in 2009, in recognition of her ‘contribution to the strengthening of democracy and human rights’, it was originally received on Aung San Suu Kyi’s behalf by her sister-in-law, Mrs Lucinda Phillips.
 
The Fellowship was presented to Aung San Suu Kyi at the House of Commons by former LJMU Chancellor Cherie Booth and LJMU Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nigel Weatherill. 
 
The recipient of numerous international awards, Aung San Suu Kyi graduated from the University of Oxford in 1967, holding a degree in philosophy, politics and economics. She has become an international symbol of peaceful resistance in the face of oppression, and became the leader of Burma's pro-democracy movement whenshe returned to the country in 1988, initially to look after her sick mother.
 
Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of the last two decades in some form of detention because of her efforts to bring democracy to military-ruled Burma. In 1991, a year after her National League for Democracy (NLD) won an overwhelming victory in an election the junta later nullified, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She was sidelined for Burma's first elections in two decades on 7 November 2010 but released from house arrest six days later.
 
LJMU’s Director of the Foundation for Citizenship, David Alton (Professor Lord Alton of Liverpool) said:
 
“Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s approach to life and her admirable fortitude, dignity and courage, are an inspiration to all who study her life. Her belief is that all people should be allowed to realise their full potential which is at the heart of LJMU’s approach to education. Much still needs to happen in Burma – including the release of 600 political prisoners still in jail – but Aung San Suu Kyi’s personal courage and bravery, recognised in the LJMU Fellowship, gives hope for the country’s future and is transforming what appeared to be an intractable and hopeless situation.”
 
Honorary Fellowships are given in recognition of outstanding achievement by an individual in a given field or profession and to those who exemplify LJMU's ethos to 'dream, plan and achieve.'

Above Left: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi receives Honorary Fellowship from Former LJMU Chancellor Cherie Booth and LJMU Vice-Chancellor Professor Nigel Weatherill.

Above Right: Chair of LJMU’s Board of Governors Sir Malcolm Thornton, LJMU Honorary Fellow Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, LJMU Vice-Chancellor Professor Nigel Weatherill, Former LJMU Chancellor Cherie Booth and Director of LJMU's Foundation for Citizenship, David Alton (Professor Lord Alton of Liverpool).

Catherine Bebbington/Parliamentary Copyright:Parliament