The Tribunal was initiated by the Asian Human Rights Commission, a Hong Kong-based organization that promotes a variety of political, economic and social rights campaigns throughout Asia. The People's Tribunal arose from a growing concern that Burma's serious crises in the areas of basic economic, social and cultural rights are worsening, yet have not been adequately addressed by the international discourse on Burma. Thus the Tribunal's goal is to create greater awareness of the systemic denial of food, as the most basic human rights, and its relationship to Burma's heavily militarized state. A People's Tribunal relies on the willingness of victims to testify about their plight as well as on the participation of credible outsiders, those without a political agenda, to document this testimony and consider it within a human rights framework.