World Report 2024 KEYNOTE COUNTRIES DONATE NOW
LANGUAGES
Myanmar
Events of 2023
Homes destroyed after airstrikes and shelling in Mung
Lai Hkyet displacement camp in Laiza, Myanmar,
October 10, 2023.
© 2023 AP Photo
Available In: English | ဗမာစကား | 简 体 中 文 | 繁 體 中 文 | Français
Shrinking Civic Space and Since the February 2021 military coup in Myanmar, the
Junta’s Sham “Elections” junta has driven the country further into a human rights
Targeted Arrests and Denial and humanitarian catastrophe. At least 55 townships
of Fair Trial Rights are under martial law. Faced with opposition from the
general population and pro-democracy armed groups,
Military Attacks on Civilian
the military has struggled to maintain control over the
Populations
country. The junta’s widespread and systematic
Displacement and abuses against the population—including arbitrary
Humanitarian Aid
arrests, torture, extrajudicial killings, and
Rohingya Apartheid indiscriminate attacks on civilians—amount to crimes
Sexual Orientation and
against humanity and war crimes.
Gender Identity
Citing ongoing violence, Myanmar’s junta postponed a
Women’s and Girls’ Rights planned so-called election slated for August after
Key International Actors extending a “state of emergency” for the fourth time
since the coup. The junta announced slightly reduced
sentences for National League for Democracy (NLD) party
leader Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, who
are serving lengthy sentences on multiple bogus
charges.
Keynote
Some countries have imposed targeted sanctions, but
the international response to the crisis has been
The Human Rights System
Is Under Threat: A Call to uncoordinated. The Myanmar military has yet to face
Action real consequences for the abuses it has committed, both
before and since the coup.
Tirana
Hassan Shrinking Civic Space and Junta’s
Sham “Elections”
Executive
Director
In March, the junta announced that the NLD was among
40 political parties and other groups dissolved for
failing to register according to the new Political Party
Registration Law. The law’s provisions appear intended
to delay indefinitely, rather than facilitate, Myanmar’s
return to civilian democratic rule. Many parties,
including the NLD, refused to comply with the
requirement that they register within 60 days of the
law’s promulgation because they believe the military’s
proposed “elections” will not be credible.
Under the new law and earlier martial law orders, any
election would be dominated by junta-backed political
parties and the military itself, which already holds 25
percent of seats in the national and local legislatures
under the 2008 Constitution. In the face of widespread
political oppression, free and fair elections are not
possible in Myanmar for the foreseeable future.
The junta claims it has digitized early census data of up
to 51 million individuals and had collected the biometric
data of up to 700,000 individuals by August. The junta’s
Ministry of Immigration and Population is collecting
fingerprints, iris scans, face scans, and other personal
details to link this data to citizenship documents,
passports, bank details, and purchases, such as for SIM
cards and mobile phones. These efforts may increase
digital surveillance of activists, human rights defenders,
and opposition members and be used to further
scrutinize citizenship rights of ethnic and minority
groups.
Targeted Arrests and Denial of Fair
Trial Rights
The targeting of activists and rights defenders has
escalated over the past year. At least 24,000 anti-coup
protesters have been arrested since the coup and 4,000
killed, according to the Assistance Association for
Political Prisoners. The Peace Research Institute of Oslo
estimates actual figures are much higher.
In the face of mass arrests, dozens of lawyers in
Myanmar have attempted to represent those arrested
and provide them a legal defense. At every turn,
however, lawyers have faced systematic obstacles
imposed by military authorities and restrictions
impeding their work. They themselves have faced
threats, arbitrary arrests and detention, and politically
motivated prosecution, and in some instances, torture
and ill-treatment.
The junta has created “special courts,” closed courts
inside prisons to fast-track politically sensitive cases.
As a result, many cases that would have been heard
before regular criminal courts before the coup are now
under the jurisdiction of these junta-controlled special
courts. Restrictions on lawyers inside special courts
have denied suspects their rights to due process and a
fair trial.
In parallel, military tribunals that are in operation in
townships under martial law determine cases for
civilians but are entirely opaque and closed to public
scrutiny.
In August, the junta announced the release of thousands
of prisoners in an amnesty that coincided with the
reduction of Aung San Suu Kyi’s and Win Myint’s
sentences. However, as in the past, few of those
released were political prisoners, and many of those
released had already served most of their sentences and
were soon due for release. Myanmar’s military
authorities have long used amnesties as a tool to gain
credibility and deflect international pressure.
In September, a court sentenced photojournalist Sai
Zaw Thaike, of the banned independent publication
Myanmar Now, to 20 years in prison with hard labor, in
a trial carried out inside Insein prison where he had no
legal representation. His sentence is the longest given
to any journalist since the coup.
Military Attacks on Civilian
Populations
On April 11, the military used a thermobaric bomb during
an attack on an opposition building in the village of Pa
Zi Gyi in Sagaing Region, killing more than 160 people,
including many children. This enhanced-blast type
munition caused indiscriminate and disproportionate
civilian casualties in violation of international
humanitarian law and was an apparent war crime.
Other attacks in which Myanmar’s military may be
responsible for laws-of-war violations include airstrikes
on April 10 in Chin State that killed nine civilians and
in Bago Region on May 2 that killed three civilians. An
air and ground assault in Magway Region on April 21
burned a Japan-funded hospital. And in March, after the
military captured a town in Shan State, 22 people
were summarily executed, with many of the victims
bearing marks of torture.
On October 9, the Myanmar military attacked a village
hosting hundreds of displaced civilians in Kachin State,
killing 28 civilians, including 11 children, committing an
apparent war crime.
Across the country, including in other areas such as in
Chin, Kachin, Karen, and Karenni States, airstrikes by
the military have increased significantly in 2023.
Airstrikes in some regions have increased more than
300 percent in the past year. The military has also
continued using domestically produced cluster
munitions; their use was first recorded in Myanmar after
the coup. Cluster munitions are prohibited under a 2008
convention signed by 123 countries; Myanmar has not
signed it.
Non-state armed groups have also committed crimes
against civilians, including sexual violence and grave
violations against children.
Displacement and Humanitarian
Aid
Nearly 2 million people have been internally displaced
and 94,000 refugees have fled to neighboring countries.
On October 27, fighting between the military and a
coalition of ethnic armed groups and People’s Defense
Forces caused about 500,000 people across the country
to be newly displaced. Many internally displaced people
have fled air and ground attacks multiple times. The
United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 18 million people
required humanitarian aid.
Junta restrictions on humanitarian aid have threatened
millions in conflict areas. The Myanmar military has
deliberately blocked aid as a form of collective
punishment. The blockages sustain the
military’s longstanding “four cuts” strategy, in which
the armed forces maintain control of an area by
isolating and terrorizing the civilian population.
On May 14, Cyclone Mocha—which is tied with another
for strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded in the
northern Indian Ocean—made landfall, leaving a trail of
destruction and affecting at least 7.9 million people
across Chin, Kachin, and Rakhine States and Sagaing
and Magway Regions, according to OCHA figures. “The
impact of climate change on children and families is
clear for all to see,” UNICEF noted following the cyclone.
Junta authorities refused to authorize travel and visas
for aid workers, release urgent supplies from customs
and warehouses, or relax onerous and unnecessary
restrictions on lifesaving assistance.
The junta’s restrictions disregarded many international
calls regarding humanitarian aid, most notably the five-
point consensus from the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the December 2022 UN
Security Council resolution, which urged “full, safe and
unhindered humanitarian access.”
Conflict and reduced agricultural production are
contributing to significant food insecurity, according to
the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. In addition,
a severe devaluation of the Myanmar currency led to
dire banking and supply chain crises and shortages of
food, medicine, and other essentials.
Rohingya Apartheid
More than 600,000 Rohingya in Myanmar continue to
live under apartheid conditions, facing persecution and
effective imprisonment from the junta authorities. Of
this population, roughly 140,000 Rohingya have been
confined to camps in central Rakhine State since 2012,
denied the right to return to their homes.
The junta continued carrying out the problematic “camp
closure” process, which entails replacing temporary
longhouses with permanent structures built on top of or
near the existing sites, further entrenching segregation.
Across the camps in central Rakhine State, fewer than
half of all camp shelters have received any repairs over
the past two years.
When Cyclone Mocha hit, local junta authorities failed
to adequately communicate the storm’s risks, assist
Rohingya in finding shelter or transportation, or support
search-and-rescue operations following the storm.
Bangladesh authorities and the Myanmar junta took
steps toward a pilot repatriation process, which has
been marked by coercion and deceit. Conditions for the
safe, sustainable, and dignified return of Rohingya did
not exist throughout the year.
Sexual Orientation and Gender
Identity
Myanmar’s penal code punishes “carnal intercourse
against the order of nature” with up to 10 years in
prison and a fine. Under the military junta, lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people have been
particularly likely to be targeted with sexual violence in
custody.
Women’s and Girls’ Rights
Since the coup, there has been an uptick in reports of
sexual violence and other forms of gendered
harassment by both military and non-state perpetrators.
In addition, women and girls remain extremely
vulnerable to gender-based violence, particularly in the
context of ongoing conflict. Women also reported a
significant decline in their ability to participate in
politics and education. Sixteen percent of girls and 5
percent of boys are married before age 18, and women
and girls are at risk of trafficking for sexual exploitation
inside and outside the country.
Key International Actors
Since passing a resolution on Myanmar in December
2022, the UN Security Council has done little more than
issue a few statements. The Myanmar military has
continued to ignore the resolution, and the council has
taken no further concrete, meaningful actions: it has not
instituted a global arms embargo, referred the country
situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC), or
imposed binding targeted sanctions on junta leadership
and military-owned companies.
The European Union passed a sixth and then a seventh
tranche of restrictions on Myanmar in February and July,
imposing sanctions on a total of 99 individuals and 19
entities.
In May, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in
Myanmar, Tom Andrews, released a report on the US$1
billion trade in arms and raw materials for weapons
since the coup. It traced the flow of weapons and
materiel to entities based in Russia, China, Singapore,
Thailand, and India. The report described how arms
dealers have relied on lax enforcement and avoided
sanctions by using “front companies.”
In June, the United States imposed sanctions on
Myanmar’s defense ministry and two banks, Myanmar
Foreign Trade Bank (MFTB) and Myanmar Investment
and Commercial Bank (MICB), used by the junta to
purchase weapons and other dual-use goods. In
response, Singapore’s United Overseas Bank, the
foreign bank of choice for Myanmar’s military,
suspended all bank-to-bank transfers. Bangladesh’s
Sonali bank has also frozen transfers and accounts of
MFTB and MICB.
On August 23, the US extended targeted sanctions to
include aviation fuel, citing the Myanmar military’s
increased attacks on civilians. The US Department of the
Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
determined sanctions “to be imposed on any foreign
individual or entity that operates in the jet fuel sector”
of the Myanmar economy. OFAC also designated
sanctions on two individuals and one entity involved in
the procurement and distribution of jet fuel as well as
two other entities owned by the two individuals.
On October 31, the US imposed a ban on financial
transactions involving the Myanma Oil and Gas
Enterprise (MOGE), which goes into effect on December
15. The directive prohibits persons and companies under
US jurisdiction from directly or indirectly providing
financial services to MOGE, including deposits,
transfers, loans, insurance, investments, foreign
exchange, and other services. The US, Canada, and the
United Kingdom also coordinated on additional
sanctions on individuals and entities.
Earlier in the year, Canada, the UK, and the EU had
imposed targeted sanctions on specific individuals and
entities involved in supplying aviation fuel to the
Myanmar military. However, at least five British
insurance companies are still providing coverage for
aviation fuel deliveries to Myanmar.
In September, ASEAN decided at its annual summit that
Myanmar would not be allowed to chair the bloc, whose
chair rotates every year in alphabetical order, in 2026.
ASEAN member states decided that a “troika,”
comprising the immediate past, present, and incoming
future chairs of ASEAN, would handle Myanmar issues
going forward.
At the ICC, the prosecutor continued his office’s
investigation into alleged crimes against humanity
following the 2017 ethnic cleansing campaign against
the Rohingya based on the completion of these crimes in
Bangladesh, an ICC member country. The Independent
Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar continued
gathering evidence for future prosecutions.
The Gambia’s case alleging Myanmar’s violation of the
Genocide Convention is ongoing before the International
Court of Justice, with Myanmar filing its counter-
memorial in August. On November 15, Canada, Denmark,
France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK filed a
joint declaration to intervene in support of The Gambia’s
case.
Browse Countries
Choose
Protecting Rights, Saving Lives
Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people in close to 100 countries worldwide, spotlighting abuses and
bringing perpetrators to justice
DONATE NOW
Get Updates On Rights Issues Worldwide Connect With Us
Enter an email address Sign Up
World Report 2024 KEYNOTE COUNTRIES DONATE NOW
LANGUAGES
Contact Us Corrections Privacy Policy Permissions Site Map Child Safeguarding
© 2024 Human Rights
Watch
Text Version
Human Rights Watch | 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor | New York, NY 10118-3299 USA | t 1.212.290.4700
Human Rights Watch is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit registered in the US under EIN: 13-2875808
