Open letter: Special Envoy’s conflicts of interest signal urgent need for investigation and complete end of mandate

To:

United Nations Secretary-General
United Nations General Assembly

17 March 2025

We—the undersigned 290 Myanmar, regional, and international civil society organizations—call on United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres to urgently open an investigation into conflicts of interest over the business activities of UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Myanmar Julie Bishop and make the findings public. We also call on the UN General Assembly (UNGA) to immediately end the mandate of the Special Envoy, and on the Secretary-General to assume a leadership role in addressing the crisis in Myanmar directly.

We are alarmed by the Special Envoy’s business activities and connections to the mining industry and Chinese state-owned companies with possible or confirmed commercial interests in Myanmar, including Shenghe Resources and China Communications Construction Company. Her involvement with Chinese state-owned companies raises serious concerns about the impartiality and independence required to engage with China as the Special Envoy on Myanmar. Such conflicts of interest actively endanger the human rights of the Myanmar people as China remains a top source of military support and false legitimacy for the illegal military junta. The Chinese government is evidently aiding and abetting the junta’s ongoing crimes against humanity and war crimes against the Myanmar people.

The UN’s response thus far is wholly unacceptable. As the appointing authority, the UN Secretary-General bears a significant responsibility to the people of Myanmar to ensure the integrity and impartiality of the Special Envoy. That the UN would allow the Special Envoy tasked with addressing the Myanmar crisis to continue given such blatant commercial interests that jeopardize the lives of the people of Myanmar, is unconscionable.

The Special Envoy’s conflicts of interest are the latest reminder that the UN’s decades of peace-brokering attempts through special envoys and “dialogues” have produced absolutely no meaningful, positive change for the people of Myanmar. Instead, this ongoing approach continues to embolden the junta to commit atrocity crimes with complete impunity and harm the people of Myanmar. Given the outdated and ineffectual mandate, civil society organizations have previously called for the UN to abolish the position. The UN must transform its destructive approach into principled, ethical, and concerted efforts that fully respect the human rights of the Myanmar people and support their collective will to dismantle military tyranny.

This moment must finally mark the end of the UN’s relegation of responsibility on the crisis in Myanmar. We urge the UNGA to immediately revoke the mandate of the Special Envoy, particularly given the current Special Envoy’s conflicts of interest that jeopardize the lives of the Myanmar people.

We call on the Secretary-General to immediately open an investigation regarding these conflicts of interest and publish the findings. The Secretary-General must urgently take the lead to end the military junta’s terror campaign, ensure accountability for the perpetrators under international law, and robustly support the Myanmar people’s revolution to build sustainable peace and an inclusive federal democracy.

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