ND Burma
ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.
Recent Posts
- Successfully Conducted a Workshop on Nepal’s Transitional Justice (TJ) with Experts from Nepal.
- East Timor war crimes case against Min Aung Hlaing reaches next stage
- War Crimes Case Against Myanmar Dictator Moves Forward in Timor-Leste
- Open letter from Myanmar, regional and international civil society organizations to ASEAN to End Myanmar Military’s Violence, Advance Accountability and Operationalize Cross-border Humanitarian Aid
- Press Release – Rights-Based Reform: ASEAN Five Years on from the 5-Point Consensus
ASEAN Must Protect, Not Neglect Human Rights in Burma
/in Briefing Papers, ND-Burma's ReportsAhead of the 46th ASEAN Summit to be held from 26-27 May 2025, members of the Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma (ND-Burma) are concerned about the ongoing failure of regional leaders to hold the military junta accountable for its widespread and systematic crimes against civilians.
The upcoming gathering of ASEAN officials and dialogue partners presents an opportunity to heed the calls of civil society organizations, which have urged decisive and firm action to the worsening human rights, humanitarian, and political crisis in Burma following the February 2021 attempted military coup.
The failure of ASEAN thus far to adequately address the multiple challenges in Burma has undermined its credibility in promoting peace and democracy, with innocent civilians suffering the most as they are forced to bear the burden of war.
The situation in Burma has worsened, with over three million displaced and declining donor support placing additional strain on local people. Even after the earthquake at the end of March 2025, the junta has not adhered to its ceasefire and continues to attack communities from the air and ground.
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Open letter: Malaysia must lead ASEAN with principle, not hypocrisy, to address the Myanmar crisis
/in Member statements, Press Releases and StatementsTo:
H.E. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim
Prime Minister of Malaysia
Chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations 2025
CC:
H.E. Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, Prime Minister of Brunei Darussalam
H.E. Hun Manet, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia
H.E. Prabowo Subianto, President of the Republic of Indonesia
H.E. Sonexay Siphandone, Prime Minister of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic
H.E. Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos, Jr., President of the Republic of the Philippines
H.E. Lawrence Wong, Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore
H.E. Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand
H.E. Phạm Minh Chính, Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
21 May 2025
Open letter: Malaysia must lead ASEAN with principle, not hypocrisy, to address the Myanmar crisis
Your Excellency,
We—the undersigned 285 Myanmar, regional, and international civil society organizations—write to you at the most critical juncture for Myanmar and for the credibility and efficacy of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the region. As Malaysia chairs ASEAN and is set to host the 46th Summit later this month, we urgently call for your decisive leadership to unify and steer ASEAN to adopt a stronger, more principled stance and take concerted efforts to address the intensifying multifaceted crisis in Myanmar.
This should begin with ASEAN cutting all ties with the Myanmar military junta and shifting official engagement to Myanmar’s legitimate stakeholders: the National Unity Government (NUG) and Ethnic Resistance Organizations (EROs).
We are compelled to express our condemnation of your recent meeting with Min Aung Hlaing, the architect of the ongoing terror campaign, and main perpetrator of genocide against the Rohingya and war crimes and crimes against humanity against the people of Myanmar. This meeting, far from being a diplomatic necessity, is a grave misstep that further harms the people. It offers the junta a dangerous façade of false legitimacy at a time when it is desperately seeking to escape international isolation and accountability. Such engagement does not serve the interests of peace or justice for the Myanmar people, for which ASEAN allegedly strives. Instead, it once again emboldens an illegitimate military junta responsible for the most heinous crimes in Southeast Asia’s recent history, and signals to the world that ASEAN is willing to compromise its credibility for the sake of hollow dialogue.
This is not an isolated error, but a symptom of ASEAN’s broader failure since the military’s illegal coup attempt in 2021. We note that this meeting—and in fact, each and every previous meeting—with junta representatives, has consistently empowered the military to continue its brutal attacks and airstrikes against civilians. For over four years, acting alone and within ASEAN, the region’s leaders have clung to an approach that prioritizes engagement with the perpetrators of mass atrocity crimes over the rule of law, justice and accountability, and solidarity with victims and survivors. The perfunctory Five-Point Consensus, repeatedly invoked but never effectively nor meaningfully implemented, has become a shield for the military to continue its campaign of terror with total impunity. The ongoing presence of junta representatives at ASEAN meetings at any level continues to undermine the bloc’s credibility and betrays its founding commitment to democracy, peace, security, and respect for human rights.
Since its illegal coup attempt in February 2021, the Myanmar military junta has perpetrated a multitude of grave human rights violations and mass atrocity crimes, including massacres, torching and pillaging entire towns, and lethal airstrikes against civilians and places where they take refuge. Since February 2021, the military has conducted more than 4,000 airstrikes, exponentially escalating such attacks over the past two years. The military’s widespread and systematic violence has so far internally displaced more than 3.5 million people—likely a gross underestimation of the true magnitude of displacement. Since your meeting with Min Aung Hlaing on 17 April, the junta has conducted at least 171 airstrikes, the vast majority on civilian areas with no intention other than to inflict harm and terrorize the people. The latest massacre in Depayin Township, Sagaing Region, on 12 May 2025, in which a junta airstrike on a school killed at least 22 children and two teachers, is yet another horrific testament to the military’s utter contempt for human life and international law.
In light of these grave realities, we urgently call on Your Excellency to exercise the courageous and principled leadership that this moment demands. Malaysia must immediately and unequivocally sever all ties with the junta, and use its position as ASEAN Chair to unify and lead the bloc with the same courageous and decisive action, in support of Myanmar people’s revolution to dismantle military tyranny and establish federal democracy. We expect that Malaysia recognizes the gravity of this call and will ensure no junta representatives are permitted to participate in any ASEAN meetings at any level—including the upcoming Summit.
ASEAN, under Malaysia’s leadership, must recognize and engage with the legitimate representatives of the Myanmar people, the NUG and EROs, as well as Myanmar civil society. These are the actors who have demonstrated genuine commitment to finding a long-term sustainable solution in the best interests and desires of Myanmar’s people: democracy, federalism, and human rights. ASEAN’s engagement must be formal, meaningful, and conducted at the highest levels—not relegated to unofficial channels in the name of quiet diplomacy or tokenistic side meetings. Engagement must be open and transparent to gain the confidence of the Myanmar people. Only then can the bloc move beyond the failed Five-Point Consensus and support a Myanmar-owned and -led solution, as it so often claims to do. ASEAN must stop clinging to empty rhetoric and prove its pledges with concrete, meaningful actions to stop the junta’s violence—most urgently the airstrikes. Anything less will only prolong ASEAN’s complicity in the cycle of military violence and impunity which has defined Myanmar over the past seven decades.
Furthermore, the humanitarian catastrophe intensifying in central Myanmar and its ethnic borderlands and regions demands an urgent and principled response, particularly following the devastating earthquake on 28 March 2025. The current approach—channeling aid through the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centre)—has failed to deliver aid meaningfully and effectively, and has further allowed the junta to weaponize aid for its own advantage. We urge Malaysia to lead ASEAN in steering Myanmar’s neighbors to collaborate with the NUG and EROs and directly support existing local civil society, networks, and community-based responders to do their important work without interference or bureaucratic obstacles.
Malaysia’s Madani values of sustainability, respect, trust, and compassion provide a strong foundation for Your Excellency to lead ASEAN to adopt a bold, inclusive, and principled approach with decisive and pragmatic action to help resolve the Myanmar crisis. Your leadership as ASEAN Chair can restore ASEAN’s regional relevance by responding to the threats posed by the Myanmar military and the multifaceted crisis it has caused and by demonstrating genuine commitment to democracy, peace, justice, human security, and development in the region.
Your Excellency, history will judge this most critical moment for the region by the choices you and your fellow ASEAN leaders make. We urge you to reject the path of hypocrisy and complicity, and instead chart a course grounded in humanity, solidarity, and respect for the rights and dignity of the Myanmar people.
We stand ready to support your efforts and urge you to seize this critical opportunity to lead ASEAN to support a Myanmar people-owned and -led political transformation process toward a just and lasting resolution in Myanmar.
For more information, please contact:
Signed by 285 civil society organizations, including 31 organizations that have chosen not to disclose their names:
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At Least 11 Schoolkids Massacred in Myanmar Junta Air Raid in Sagaing
/in NewsA junta airstrike on a school in a resistance stronghold in Sagaing Region’s Depayin Township on Monday killed at least 17 people, mostly students.
A fighter jet from Meiktila airbase dropped a 500 lb bomb on the school at O Htein Twin Village, where around 100 youngsters were studying, according to residents.
“The explosion was quite powerful,” a resident told The Irrawaddy. “By the time we heard the aircraft, the bomb had already dropped, so there was no time to escape, and many were killed and injured.”
A local education aid group said 17 people including several students were confirmed dead, and the death toll is expected to be higher. Around 30 others were injured, and some of them are in critical condition amid a lack of proper treatment in the area.
A photo released by local anti-regime activists shows the dead bodies of 11 students in school uniforms and a severed leg lying in the school grounds.
An official of the activist group Some Messages from Depayin told the Irrawaddy that the regime intentionally targeted the school as the township is under the administration of the parallel National Unity Government (NUG).
In September 2022, regime helicopter gunships also bombed the school of Let Yat Kone Village in Depayin, killing 13 people including seven children.
The junta declared a post-earthquake ceasefire until the end of May, but the NUG’s Human Rights Ministry on Monday said the regime conducted a total of 372 airstrikes across 13 states and regions between March 28 and May 9, killing 334 people and injuring 552 others.
Irrawaddy
Junta bombs a school in central Myanmar, kills at least 20 students
/in NewsTwo teachers also die in the airstrike in Sagaing and medical centers struggle to cope with the wounded.
Junta forces bombed a school in central Myanmar on Monday, killing at least 20 students, local sources and the country’s exiled civilian administration told Radio Free Asia.
A fighter jet fired at Sagaing region’s Oe Htein Kwin village in Tabayin township, which is under rebel control.
The airstrike killed 20 students and two teachers, and more than 20 others were wounded, according to local sources who requested anonymity for safety reasons.
Earlier, Nay Bone Latt, a spokesperson for the prime minister’s office of the shadow National Unity Government said that 17 students had died but that the death toll could rise.
It was one of the deadliest attacks on children by the military since it seized power in a coup against an elected government four years ago, triggering widespread civil conflict.
The airstrike came despite the junta declaring a ceasefire until May 31 after a March 28 earthquake that killed more than 3,800 people, mostly in Sagaing and Mandalay regions. Airstrikes and heavy artillery attacks have continued, killing more than 200 people.
Nay Bone Latt claimed that the children in school were intentionally targeted in the bombing. “The junta often uses propaganda to say after deliberately attacking areas with displaced people and children, that they were bombed because of revolutionary forces,” he told RFA.
Calls to junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun went unanswered. But state-run MRTV television denied the reports of the airstrike on Monday evening’s news broadcast, saying subversive media outlets were intentionally spreading fake news, Associated Press reported.
The fighter jet, likely flying from Mandalay region’s Meiktila Air Force Base, attacked the school in Oe Htein Kwin village around 9:30 a.m., during class time, according to residents.
Medical centers nearby are overwhelmed because many victims are severely injured, one of the residents said.
According to the nongovernment Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which records fatalities in addition to numbers incarcerated by the junta, more than 6,600 civilians have been killed by security forces since the February 2021 coup.
The worst recorded fatal event for children since the coup was an April 11, 2023, airstrike on Pazigyi village, Kantbalu Township, Sagaing region, which killed 128 people, including 40 children.
Translated by Kiana Duncan. Reporting by Kyaw Kyaw Aung. Edited by Taejun Kang and Mat Pennington.
RFA News
UN Special Envoy Julie Bishop reported to UN Office of Internal Oversight Services over conflicts of interest
/in Member statements9 May 2025
On 4 May 2025, four Myanmar civil society organizations (CSOs)—Blood Money Campaign, Defend Myanmar Democracy, Karen Peace Support Network, and Progressive Voice—submitted a report of wrongdoing to the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) regarding the business activities of UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Myanmar Julie Bishop.
This wrongdoing report to OIOS follows an open letter which 290 Myanmar, regional, and international civil society organizations sent to the UN Secretary-General and UN General Assembly (UNGA) on 17 March 2025, calling for an investigation into Julie Bishop’s business activities and the revocation of the Special Envoy’s mandate. OIOS is the UN’s internal oversight body, and it has operational independence under the authority of the Secretary-General.
In the 17 March letter and subsequent wrongdoing report, CSOs urged the Secretary-General to urgently investigate the Special Envoy’s business activities and connections to the mining industry and Chinese state-owned companies with reported commercial interests in Myanmar, including Shenghe Resources and China Communications Construction Company.
The UN has not responded to the civil society open letter, and the Secretary-General’s Office continues to defend Julie Bishop’s conduct, ignoring the serious concerns raised by civil society. Multiple international anti-corruption experts have stated that civil society concerns about Julie Bishop’s conflicts of interest are credible and warrant action by the UN.
The UN’s failure to respond to civil society’s concerns is all the more egregious given the UN Special Envoy on Myanmar’s mandate to engage “with all relevant stakeholders, including civil society, and affected populations.” Yet, the Secretary-General and the Special Envoy herself continue to ignore the Myanmar people.
With no meaningful response from the UN, Julie Bishop’s business activities related to China continue to endanger the human rights of the Myanmar people, as China remains a top source of military support and false legitimacy for the illegal Myanmar military junta, aiding and abetting the junta’s ongoing crimes against humanity and war crimes against the Myanmar people. These concerns have only deepened following the 28 March earthquake that devastated central Myanmar: Following the earthquake, China has provided substantial support to the military junta, under the guise of humanitarian aid, despite the junta’s continued weaponization of such quake-related aid for its own material and political gain.
Blood Money Campaign, Defend Myanmar Democracy, Karen Peace Support Network, and Progressive Voice urge OIOS to conduct a prompt, thorough, and transparent investigation into Julie Bishop’s business activities and publish the findings.
Khin Ohmar of Progressive Voice said, “If the UN’s desire to ‘end the hostilities’ and support the Myanmar people is genuine, it would immediately investigate Julie Bishop’s conflicts of interest, remove her from the position, and abolish the Special Envoy on Myanmar mandate. Julie Bishop further taints the UN’s reputation in Myanmar and beyond. It’s time for the UN to respect its own rules and regulations. OIOS must initiate a thorough and transparent investigation into Julie Bishop’s business activities without further delay and share those findings publicly.”
Naw Aung of Defend Myanmar Democracy said, “Julie Bishop’s connections to the mining industry and Chinese state-owned companies show a complete lack of integrity and are wholly untenable for a UN Special Envoy. The UNGA must seize this moment to revoke the mandate, and revamp the UN’s address of Myanmar’s crisis to be based on human rights rather than political lobbying.”
Mulan of Blood Money Campaign said, “China is a major arms supplier of the military junta, providing the fighter jets and drones used to murder civilians across Myanmar even after the earthquake on 28 March. Julie Bishop’s commercial interests with this complicit actor in the junta’s crimes must be immediately investigated by the UN. It must also finally end the mandate of the Special Envoy on Myanmar, which has been a total failure in producing meaningful change for the people. The Secretary-General himself must take the lead to end the military junta’s international crimes. Refusing to do so will only embolden the junta to continue its terror campaign against the people and thus further damage the little credibility the UN has left.”
Cherry of Karen Peace Support Network said, “The UN must respect our voices as civil society and stop doing harm in Myanmar. For more than four years, the UN has failed to take meaningful action to stop the junta’s war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The UN and the international community must stand with the Myanmar people and robustly support our revolution to build sustainable peace and an inclusive federal democracy. This support must start with opening an investigation regarding Julie Bishop’s conflicts of interest and publishing the findings.”
For more information, please contact:
Sex-based violence against women and girls in Myanmar
/in NewsMizzima
NGO Human Rights Myanmar says Myanmar’s military systematically uses sex-based violence to subjugate women and girls, intensifying since the 2021 coup, according to a report released on 5 May.
At least 380 women have been intentionally targeted and killed, some burned alive or executed in custody, while over 500 have faced sexual violence, including rape. This deliberate strategy, rooted in patriarchy and militarisation, aims to silence dissent and erase women from public life.
The NGO’s report demands international accountability, survivor protection, and action against these potential crimes against humanity.
The following are the key points:
In Myanmar, violence against women and girls is deeply entrenched in patriarchal norms and has been exacerbated by the military coup. Since 2021, women and girls have faced extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, sexual violence, and torture. These acts are not incidental but represent a deliberate strategy to reinforce male dominance, silence dissent, and instill fear.
Targeted killings of women
In addition to the hundreds of women killed by indiscriminate artillery and airstrikes against civilian areas, at least 380 women and girls have been specifically targeted and unlawfully killed by the military.[1] Of these, at least 216 were shot, including 50 who were summarily executed. The targeting of women for execution constitutes a grave violation of Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which enshrines the right to life.
At least 119 of the 380 women specifically killed were held in custody by the military at the time of their deaths, including 28 who were shot. The deprivation of liberty without due process, combined with summary executions of detainees, amounts to enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. These acts violate the prohibition against arbitrary deprivation of life under international law and reflect a broader pattern of targeted violence against women as a means of punishment and control. The military’s systematic impunity for these killings further entrenches structural discrimination against women and girls.
Sex-based factors in killings
Among the most egregious acts of violence, at least 71 women and girls were killed by being set on fire. This method of execution is particularly significant in the context of sex-based violence. Burning is not merely a form of execution; it is an act that seeks to dehumanise and obliterate women’s identity and is often used to conceal evidence of sexual violence. The mutilation and destruction of women’s bodies serve to erase evidence of sexual crimes and further terrorise affected communities.
Similarly, at least one woman has been killed by the military through beheading, a method of execution that carries profound symbolic significance. Historically, beheading has been associated with the suppression of female agency and the enforcement of patriarchal control. It represents an attempt to silence women physically and symbolically, reinforcing the idea that those who challenge traditional power structures or assume leadership roles must be eliminated in a demonstrative manner.
Sexual violence and rape
Beyond the methods of killing, some of the 380 women and girls were subjected to sexual violence, including rape, before their deaths. Sexual violence is one of the most direct and severe forms of sex-based violence, as it specifically targets women and girls based on their sex, reducing them to instruments of subjugation and humiliation. Rape has been systematically used in Myanmar as a weapon of war, an assertion of dominance, and a means of political and ethnic persecution. Sexual violence is often used not only as an attack on individual women but as a strategic tool to break communities and enforce patriarchal hierarchies.
While the full scale of sexual violence remains difficult to determine due to the lack of independent monitoring and the military’s deliberate obstruction of accountability mechanisms, credible information indicates that at least 500 women have been subjected to sexual violence and rape.[2] At least 16 women and girls were raped while in custody before being killed.[3] The true number is likely far higher. The military’s use of detention as a space for sexual violence before execution is a pattern documented in other conflicts and constitutes torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. The systematic nature of these violations, combined with their targeting of women and girls based on sex, could amount to crimes against humanity.
Structural aggravating factors
Certain factors exacerbate the nature, likelihood, and impact of sex-based violence against women and girls. Each factor is also increased by intersectional oppression, such as based on ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, and disability, shaping vulnerabilities to sex-based violence. In Myanmar, three major aggravating factors have intensified since the military takeover in February 2021.
Patriarchy
Deeply entrenched patriarchal norms and values permeate Myanmar’s social, political, economic, educational, cultural, and legal structures, reinforcing gender-based discrimination and worsening sex-based violence against women and girls. Women and girls experience additional layers of exclusion due to their lack of access to power and privilege, rigid sex roles, and systemic discriminatory policies and practices. Ethno-nationalists claim that women are “naturally” weaker. Their autonomy is restricted under the pretence of “protection” by families, communities, and the State. Those who challenge these limitations—through their thoughts, speech, or actions—are accused of threatening Myanmar’s “traditional values,” endorsing “Westernisation,” harbouring hostility toward men, or even suffering from mental instability. The military coup has further entrenched patriarchal control, particularly because the military itself remains an institution dominated by men, with very few women in leadership positions.
Militarisation
Myanmar’s long-standing militarisation has embedded military values, structures, and behaviour across society, governance, the economy, education, and the legal system. This has reinforced patriarchal dominance, prioritised State security over human rights, and normalised the use of force as a means of control. Militarisation increases the risks for women and girls who assert their rights. Any deviation from traditional sex-based roles or any form of expression that challenges male dominance is labelled as “undisciplined” or subversive. In extreme cases, women and girls who assert themselves are depicted as threats to public order, as agents of foreign influence, or as “traitors” to the state. Under this militarised framework, any perceived challenge to the status quo—regardless of its severity—is met with force, whether from State authorities, community actors, or even family members.
Extremism
Religious and ethno-nationalist extremism further exacerbates discrimination against women and girls by justifying their oppression under moral and ideological pretexts. Extreme elements exist within Myanmar’s religious communities, with some groups actively encouraged by the military since the 2021 coup as part of a divide-and-rule strategy aimed at fuelling communal tensions. Extremism serves as an aggravating factor because it provides an ethical and religious rationale for suppressing women’s rights. Women and girls who defy traditional sex-based roles are cast as being “against” religious values. They are portrayed as “bad” wives and mothers, “immoral” daughters and sisters, and as bringing “shame” upon their communities. By disguising sex-based oppression as religious doctrine, extremism legitimises the control, subjugation, and punishment of women and girls, further entrenching patriarchal dominance in Myanmar.