In 1990 Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) won the general election in Burma. But instead of serving as the Prime Minister, she was imprisoned in her own home by the military junta.

Today Aung San Suu Kyi is hardly allowed any visitors. Her phone line is cut, her post intercepted and she is separated from her children. She was not even allowed to see her husband before his death from cancer in 1999. And yet through her courage and commitment to non-violent protest, she has become a symbol of hope and inspiration in her own country and around the world.

In August 2009 the Burmese junta extended Suu Kyi’s detention yet again - she has now spent 14 of the last 19 years in detention. Until she is released and the junta recognise the legitimacy of her party, there can be no genuine improvement in the human rights situation in Burma.

Amnesty International is campaigning for Aung San Suu Kyi's release.

Suu Kyi may be the best known of Burma’s prisoners of conscience, but she is far from the only one. Amnesty estimates that more than 2,100 political prisoners are currently being held in Burmese prisons. Many have been held for as long as 20 years - since the student protests of 1988. Others were detained in 2007 when the government instigated a ruthless crackdown on peaceful demonstrations led by monks. Two years after that violent response, fear and terror are still widespread among the people of Burma.