Under Attack: Women’s Peace and Security in Burma

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On 1 February 2021, the military deliberately sabotaged the prospects for democracy when they attempted a coup. Senior politicians and newly elected Members of Parliament were quickly detained and arbitrarily arrested. Those who escaped the junta’s grasp fled, and many remain in exile as their names circulate on military-sponsored wanted lists. Widespread opposition to the hijacking of the November 2020 national elections emerged, and it wasn’t long before protests flooded the country’s streets.

The gendered impacts of the junta’s violence over the last four and a half years have had alarming effects on the safety of young women and girls. Their rights and freedoms are being regularly undermined as aerial and ground strikes from the military junta escalate, especially in areas where the opposition holds significant bases and territory. More than four years after the attempted coup in Burma, women and girls are still facing immense risks to their safety. The military junta has openly ignored concerns for women’s rights, their protection, and their calls for reforms to laws that have discriminated against their potential and well-being.

Patriarchal norms have long challenged women’s rights. In addition, the severe humanitarian crisis following the 2021 military coup, and ongoing gender-based violence, which includes arbitrary arrests, movement restrictions, and limited access to resources, as well as other rights violations. Among the current barriers threatening women’s safety are the ongoing conflict, forced conscription and the sham election. Militarization across Burma’s various States and Regions has made it so difficult to survive that no place has been granted safe and secure from the threat of an indiscriminate attack.

WPS in BurmaDownload

HURFOM Releases New Report: “Voting Under the Barrel of a Gun – A Country at War, Not at the Polls”

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The Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) has released a new report, “Voting Under the Barrel of a Gun: A Country at War, Not at the Polls.” The findings show that the junta’s planned election is not a democratic process but a violent campaign to manufacture legitimacy while communities face ongoing attacks and intimidation.

Launched ahead of the regime’s proposed polls, the report draws on interviews and case studies from conflict-affected areas across Mon State, Karen State, and Tanintharyi Region. HURFOM documents how the junta is using fear, coercion, and propaganda to force participation, even as airstrikes, shelling, and mass arrests continue to harm civilians.

HURFOM interviewed politicians, election observers, community members in our target areas, and actors connected to the armed context. One Mon State election observer told HURFOM on 7 October 2025 that the process is “unfair by design,” citing the manipulation of administrative boundaries, population data, and the rollout of a confusing proportional representation system across Mon State.

“Everyone in Mon State, and across the country, already knows the 2025 election is a sham. People understand they will be forced to ‘participate’ in an election held at gunpoint,” the observer said. “At the same time, the junta is trying to make their fake results look more realistic. You can see this in how they are redrawing district boundaries.”

The report shows how life under siege has become unbearable for many communities. With violence and repression intensifying around the election period, HURFOM warns that another decade of military rule is likely if there is no decisive international response.

HURFOM calls on regional and global actors to reject the junta’s planned election and take meaningful action, including pursuing a referral of the human rights situation in Burma to the International Criminal Court.

The full report can be downloaded here:

👉 Download “Voting Under the Barrel of a Gun” (PDF)

The press release is available here:

👉 Press Release (PDF)

ASEAN Must Unequivocally Reject Myanmar Junta’s Sham Election during the Summit

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We, the undersigned trade unions, civil society, and human rights organisations from across the ASEAN region and international community, issue this urgent and unequivocal call to our governments ahead of the upcoming ASEAN Summit: outrightly reject the Myanmar military junta’s planned sham election. Anything less would be a betrayal of the people of Myanmar and a stain on the conscience of our entire region.

The junta’s planned election on 28 December 2025 is an illegal, cynical ploy to manufacture a façade of legitimacy for its rule of terror. This is the same military that defied the people’s landslide verdict in 1990 and staged the fraudulent 2010 polls to disguise dictatorship as reform. To believe its promises now is to wilfully disregard history.

A genuine election cannot take place amid mass killings and repression. It is a charade held under the barrel of a gun. The junta has waged war on its own people, killing over 7,300 civilians, arbitrarily detaining more than 29,000, and displacing over 3.5 million. It has outlawed legitimate political parties, imprisoned and tortured democratic leaders, and enacted draconian electoral laws that impose the death penalty for dissent. As the UN Special Rapporteur stated, this is not an election, but a “fraud.” In fact, this process has nothing to do with the ASEAN Five-Point Consensus; it is a unilateral act of a murderous junta that will only exacerbate the conflict.

The international democratic community has taken a firm stand. The European Union has refused to send observers, calling the poll a “regime-sponsored” exercise with only one possible outcome. In Bangkok, parliamentarians from Ireland, the United States, Norway, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and New Zealand reaffirmed their unified rejection of the junta’s so-called election and called for global solidarity with Myanmar’s democracy movement. Respected electoral monitoring bodies, including International IDEA and ANFREL, have unequivocally rejected the junta’s planned election and called it falling short of democratic legitimacy. ASEAN cannot afford to isolate itself by becoming an enabler of this farce.

To grant any form of recognition to this process is to give the junta a green light for more atrocities. This is a regime that bombs villages on holy days and launches airstrikes in the aftermath of earthquakes. Endorsing its electoral charade will only prolong the suffering of millions and add legitimacy to the weapons and aviation fuel it uses to terrorise civilians.

ASEAN member states have a profound moral and international obligation to act. The historic ILO Resolution under Article 33, adopted in June 2025, explicitly calls on all governments to “review… the relations they may have with Myanmar military authorities” to ensure they do not “enable, facilitate or prolong” these gross violations. Likewise, UN Security Council Resolution 2669 and ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus demand an immediate end to violence. Failure to reject this election would render ASEAN complicit in the junta’s crimes against humanity.

The world is watching. ASEAN’s credibility—and its future as a community founded on peace, democracy, and human rights—is at stake. We therefore demand that our leaders issue a clear, firm, and unified statement rejecting the junta’s sham election and refusing to recognise its outcome. There must be no room for vague diplomatic language that the junta can manipulate for its propaganda.

We call specifically on Malaysia, as the 2025 ASEAN Chair, and on Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, to demonstrate moral leadership. As a lifelong champion of free and fair elections who has personally endured political persecution, his voice must be the loudest and consistent in upholding democratic values, not just in Malaysia, but across our region.

This is a call for moral clarity, a call to stand on the right side of history.

We urge all governments, institutions, and organisations of conscience to:

✅UNEQUIVOCALLY REJECT the Myanmar junta’s sham election.

✅REFUSE to send observers or provide any form of technical or political support.

✅STAND FIRMLY in solidarity with the people of Myanmar and their legitimate democratic representatives.

𝐌𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐑𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐃𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧-𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐦𝐚 (𝐍𝐃-𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐦𝐚)

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Before the ASEAN summit, ND-Burma delegates met with the Malaysia Human Rights Commission (SUHAKAM) to discuss the human rights situation in Myanmar, to protect refugee and migrant workers in Malaysia and to protest against the election by the military dictators.

On 15 October 2025, SUHAKAM, led by Chairman Dato’ Seri Mohd Hishamudin Yunus and Commissioner Ms. Melissa Mohd Akhir met with members of the Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma

ND-Burma was formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burmese 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.

The meeting provided a platform to discuss the latest human rights situation in Myanmar including the high rate of civilian casualties and damages to civilian infrastructure caused by airstrikes along with the continued stifling of freedom of expression and assembly. The meeting also discussed the need for the protection and safeguard of refugees and migrants in Malaysia and rejection of the upcoming sham elections that will cause the people of Myanmar to continue to suffer.

SUHAKAM wishes to thank the representatives from ND-Burma for the exchange and looks forward to future engagements.

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Meeting with Human Rights Documentation Network-Burma (ND-Burma)

On October 15, 2025, SUHAKAM led by Chairman Dato’ Seri Mohd Hishamudin Yunus and Commissioner Mrs Melissa Mohd Ahir held a meeting with the members of the Human Rights Documentation Network-Burma.

ND-Burma was established in 2004 to provide an avenue for Burmese human rights organizations to cooperate in the process of documenting human rights issues. 13 organizations that are members of ND-Burma aspire to use the truth about what communities in Burma have collectively experienced to fight for justice for victims.

The meeting has provided a platform to discuss the current situation of human rights in Myanmar including the high rate of civilian mortality and the damage to public infrastructure caused by air strikes along with the freedom of speech and assembly that continues to be blocked. The meeting also discussed the need for protection for refugees and migrants in Malaysia and the rejection of fake elections that will cause Myanmar people to continue to suffer.

SUHAKAM would like to thank the representatives from ND-Burma for the exchange of views and hopes to continue cooperation in the future.

#SUHAKAM

2 local women killed, 2 injured in Mongngawt Myoma Market bombing

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Ta’ang Women’s Organization

Last night, October 20, Mongngawt Township, controlled by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (PSLF/TNLA), was reportedly targeted by airstrikes.

At 8 p.m., the Mongngawt Myoma Market was airstrike bombed by the Terror military council, killing 2 locals, injuring 2 others, and burning down at least 10 houses and 5 shops, according to a local man from Mongngawt.

“It wasn’t a police station that was hit, it was in the market, it was raining last night, and people were just trying to put out the fire. The market caught fire, and 2 people were killed, 2 were injured, and houses were also damaged,” he told TWO.

Two women, 29-year-old Thura Rein and 54-year-old Daw Lin Lin, who were standing at the market, died of burns. The injured were 19-year-old Wai Yan Zaw, who was hit in the left thigh, and 53-year-old U Mona, who was injured in the head and abdomen.

Similarly, at around 12 noon on October 19, an airstrike bomb was dropped near the monastery in Loi Pein Village, Mong Ngao Township, damaging the monastery shelter and the monastery building.

On October 8, two 500-pound bombs and four rocket-propelled grenades were dropped on Manlon and Talon Wards, killing two people, injuring one man and one woman, and damaging 18 houses.”

Source : TWO

Junta Intensifies Airstrikes Across Shan, Hitting Four Townships in First Week of October

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The Myanmar military junta has escalated its aerial attacks in Shan State, carrying out airstrikes on at least four townships — Mongkut (Mogok), Namtu, Hsipaw, Mantong, and Namhsan — during the first week of October. The strikes resulted in civilian casualties and widespread damage, according to reports from locals and the Ta’ang (Palaung) National Liberation Army (TNLA).

In Mongkut (Mogok), a junta aircraft dropped bombs on the western part of the town near the Shan–Mandalay border on October 1, injuring two civilians. Residents said the airstrike hit the road leading to Yay Htwet Gyi. The same area was previously bombed on September 16.

A damaged house in Hsipaw following a junta airstrike
A damaged house in Hsipaw following a junta airstrike.

In Namtu, four displaced persons were killed and at least five others injured when the military council bombed Ward 8 on October 2. Many of the victims were families displaced from Kyaukme and Nawng Ping. The TNLA confirmed it was the first airstrike on Namtu since the group seized control of the town. On the same morning, junta jets also attacked the TNLA’s Infantry Battalion (130) camp in nearby Mantong Township.

In Hsipaw, junta aircraft launched multiple strikes between October 2 and 4. Bombs hit the Kumadra Hotel in San Hpeik village, a former police station in Manhe village, and later that night, a monastery, a school, and several homes in Zat Su ward. TNLA reports said four bombs dropped on October 4 damaged 13 houses, Basic Education High School (2), and the Banda Monastery in Kyaung Su village.

In Namhsan, a junta jet bombed Zei Kon Huong village around noon on October 4, killing two children — Maung Zay Yar Aung (10) and Maung Htun Myo Aung (13) — and injuring nine others, including six children.

A damaged house in Namhsan following a junta airstrike
A damaged house in Namhsan following a junta airstrike

A political activist from northern Shan State said the renewed air and ground offensives are tied to the junta’s plan to hold elections on December 28. “The military has reportedly retaken Kyaukme and is now preparing to advance on Hsipaw, Namtu, Manton, Namkham, Kutkai, and Hsenwi,” he told SHAN.

Observers note that the recent wave of airstrikes marks one of the most concentrated aerial campaigns in Shan State since Operation 1027, as the junta seeks to regain control of key towns ahead of the planned election.

Shan News