The Nobel Peace Prize Committee hailed her as "one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Asia in recent decades," adding: "She has become an important symbol in the struggle against oppression."
She received one of America's highest honours, the United States Congressional Gold Medal, honorary degrees from the University of Oxford and many other universities around the world, and the freedom of countless cities.
But now Edinburgh has become the latest city to withdraw its recognition from Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's discredited leader.
Yesterday, councillors backed a motion by Lord Provost Frank Roy calling for the freedom of the city award granted to her nine years ago, to be revoked, effective immediately.
"I no longer believe her receipt of this award or the reasons it was presented are appropriate or accurate," Mr Roy told the council.
Since becoming state counsellor – effectively prime minister – of the country formerly known as Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi has sullied the extraordinary reputation she built up as a symbol of the non-violent fight against oppression.
For more than two decades, she was the figurehead for resistance to the military junta which ruled her country despite spending 15 years living under house arrest.
The fall from grace has come as the leader, who was appointed to the post of State Counsellor in 2016 – after the role was created for her – has appeared unable or unwilling to act to prevent ongoing human rights abuses in Myanmar.
Instead she has appeared content to allow horrifying levels of persecution of a Rohingya Muslim minority to continue. In the course of a military crackdown, Doctors Without Borders says 700,000 people have been displaced, more than the population of Edinburgh, with the charity estimating that 6,700 Rohingya were killed within the first month of the violence, including 730 children under the age of five.
The United Nations has likened the plight of the people to ethnic cleansing.
In Myanmar the Rohingya – descended from Bengali Muslims, brought to Rahkine generations ago when Burma needed workers – are not recognised as citizens.
The atrocities against them began in August last year, since when more than half of an estimated population of 1.3 milion have fled over the border to Bangladesh and satellite images show hundreds of villages have been razed to the ground behind them.
Lord Provost Roy's motion came after he and others made extensive efforts to contact the Myanmar leader, urging her to use her "immeasurable moral courage and influence" to secure the return of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar's Rahkine State.
He never received a reply. "We have tried every route that we possibly have available to us to make contact, via our armed forces, through diplomatic means, by writing directly - yet we have seen the situation in Myanmar continue to deteriorate," he explained.
His motion said councillors were disappointed in their former Freewoman. “This award is granted rarely and only to those individuals who are held in the highest esteem by the citizens of Edinburgh. It was presented to Aung San Suu Kyi in recognition of her personal courage and relentless pursuit of justice," he said. "This is not a decision we take lightly".
Green councillors in Edinburgh were not content to leave it on that, persuading the council to also publicise the decisions in an addendum which called on the council to : "Condemn leaders who remain silent while ethnic cleansing takes place in their nations. We will not remain silent in Edinburgh. We will raise awareness."
Edinburgh follows Glasgow, Newcastle and Oxford in revoking the freedom of the city which was awarded to Aung San Suu Kyi in 2005. It is only the second time Edinburgh has taken this action – Irish nationalist Charles Parnell was also stripped of the status following a sex scandal in 1890.
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