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Myanmar Mechanism investigations reveal deliberate attacks on civilians by the Myanmar military – Annual Report

August 12, 2026/in Other Human Rights Reports

Geneva, 11 August 2026 – Investigations by the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (Mechanism), as detailed in its Annual Report released today, show a pattern of deliberate aerial attacks on civilians, arbitrary detentions, torture and sexual violence committed by the Myanmar military. The Myanmar military escalated its aerial attacks and other crimes against civilians in the lead-up to […]

Protecting Humanity: Enforcing the ICRC Mandate in Myanmar – An Open Letter to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

August 11, 2026/in ND-Burma Members' Reports, Press Releases and Statements

Date: 11 August 2026 To the Leadership and Representatives of the ICRC, We, the undersigned 155 Myanmar, regional and international civil society organizations, write to you today with a profound sense of urgency and deep frustration regarding the 3 August 2026 meeting between your resident representative, Arnaud de Baecque, and Myanmar’s State Counsellor, Daw Aung San Suu […]

Myanmar Mechanism investigations reveal deliberate attacks on civilians by the Myanmar military – Annual Report

August 12, 2026/in Other Human Rights Reports

Protecting Humanity: Enforcing the ICRC Mandate in Myanmar – An Open Letter to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

August 11, 2026/in ND-Burma Members' Reports, Press Releases and Statements

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Myanmar Mechanism investigations reveal deliberate attacks on civilians by the Myanmar military – Annual Report

August 12, 2026/in Other Human Rights Reports

Geneva, 11 August 2026 – Investigations by the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (Mechanism), as detailed in its Annual Report released today, show a pattern of deliberate aerial attacks on civilians, arbitrary detentions, torture and sexual violence committed by the Myanmar military.

The Myanmar military escalated its aerial attacks and other crimes against civilians in the lead-up to the elections completed in January this year and these have continued unabated.

“Behind every piece of evidence we collect are people whose lives have been devastated by these crimes,” said Nicholas Koumjian, Head of the Mechanism. “Communities across Myanmar are not only living under the constant threat of violence but are also coping with the profound and lasting impact of what they have endured. This underscores the urgent need to hold those responsible to account.”

Covering the period from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026, the Report outlines the Mechanism’s investigations into aerial attacks targeting homes, schools, medical facilities, religious buildings and camps for internally displaced persons, causing deaths, injuries and destruction. The military’s increasing reliance on paramotors and drones has made attacks harder for civilians to detect, limiting their ability to flee or seek shelter. The Mechanism has identified some of the military units responsible for these attacks.

The Mechanism has also collected and analysed extensive evidence of arbitrary detention, torture and sexual violence in military-run detention facilities, including cases linked to the 2025 law criminalizing criticism of the elections. Numerous individuals have been arrested under the law and face up to 20 years’ imprisonment and the death penalty for activities such as posting critical comments on social media.

While most of the evidence collected by the Mechanism concerns crimes committed by the Myanmar security forces and affiliated militias, it is also investigating alleged atrocities involving armed groups opposed to the military.

The Mechanism’s investigations draw on evidence from more than 1,600 sources, including over 750 accounts from witnesses, as well as photographs, videos, audio material, documents, maps, geospatial imagery, social media posts and forensic evidence.

The Mechanism continues to share evidence and analysis with authorities pursuing accountability for crimes committed against the Rohingya, including at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and in Argentina, and has also responded to requests from other authorities investigating crimes committed since the 2021 military takeover.

It has also provided extensive evidence and analysis to the parties in The Gambia v. Myanmar proceedings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where the judges are deliberating whether Myanmar violated its obligations under the Genocide Convention during the 2016 and 2017 clearance operations against the Rohingya.

The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM or Mechanism) was created by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2018 to collect and analyse evidence of the most serious international crimes and other violations of international law committed in Myanmar since 2011. It aims to facilitate justice and accountability by preserving and organizing this evidence and preparing analysis that can be used by authorities to prosecute individuals in national, regional and international courts.

For more information, visit iimm.un.org or contact iimm@un.org.

Protecting Humanity: Enforcing the ICRC Mandate in Myanmar – An Open Letter to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

August 11, 2026/in ND-Burma Members' Reports, Press Releases and Statements

Date: 11 August 2026

To the Leadership and Representatives of the ICRC,

We, the undersigned 155 Myanmar, regional and international civil society organizations, write to you today with a profound sense of urgency and deep frustration regarding the 3 August 2026 meeting between your resident representative, Arnaud de Baecque, and Myanmar’s State Counsellor, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

While any contact with the State Counsellor, who is being unlawfully imprisoned by the illegal military junta in Myanmar, is a matter of intense public interest, the sequence of events surrounding this visit illustrates our greatest fear: the ICRC’s mandate is being actively exploited by the military junta. The meeting demonstrated how humanitarian engagement in Myanmar is increasingly vulnerable to political instrumentalization by the military junta, thereby aiding them to advance their political aims, and in turn prolonging the suffering of the Myanmar people and undermining their expressed democratic will and aspirations.

The junta first publicized the meeting, releasing carefully curated photographs of handshakes and a birthday cake to project an illusion of normalcy and cooperation to the international community as it desperately seeks legitimacy for its violently imposed rule. Only after this propaganda was disseminated did the ICRC issue a brief, reactionary confirmation.

In your statement, you noted that the visit followed “established guidelines” and permitted a “private conversation,” and you added that, per your standard procedures, all observations regarding her condition are kept strictly confidential and shared only with detaining authorities. You disclosed nothing regarding her health, her whereabouts, or the reality of her captivity.

A short, sanitized announcement is NOT enough. When the ICRC allows the military junta to exploit its presence as a credible international humanitarian organization for propaganda to advance its political agenda while remaining silent about the realities of the situation, the ICRC is no longer practicing neutrality. The ICRC is instead complicit in the military junta’s theater and blatant violations of international humanitarian law.

We anticipate the ICRC’s defence. We know it will rest upon the Fundamental Principles of the ICRC Movement, particularly neutrality, independence and confidentiality. We recognize that confidential dialogue is intended to secure humanitarian access and protect those deprived of their liberty. However, humanitarian engagement also carries a responsibility to safeguard its integrity from political exploitation.

The political instrumentalization of this visit was entirely foreseeable. The military junta has, for more than five years, consistently exploited humanitarian and diplomatic engagement to extract legitimacy and project an image of normalcy. Given this well-established pattern, the ICRC had a responsibility to anticipate and actively prevent such exploitation. The public dissemination of carefully staged photographs and messaging by the junta was not an unforeseeable consequence—it was an entirely predictable outcome.

Against this backdrop, we must ask: was the ICRC protecting its humanitarian mandate, or merely accommodating the military junta’s need in turn to protect the ICRC? An honest examination of your own doctrine reveals that your current approach is failing the very principles you claim to uphold:

Humanity is the Supreme Principle; Neutrality is a Tool: The first principle of your movement is to prevent and alleviate human suffering. Neutrality is not an end in itself. It exists to advance the principle of humanity by enabling access to those in need. When neutrality is repeatedly exploited to generate political legitimacy for violators of international law without extracting corresponding humanitarian gains from them, the relationship between means and ends deserves urgent reassessment.
The Premise of Confidential Dialogue has been Destroyed: The ICRC’s doctrine of confidentiality assumes good faith, that private dialogue with authorities will lead to tangible improvements for detainees. After more than five years of widespread arbitrary detention, torture, incommunicado detention and denial of independent monitoring, what measurable humanitarian improvements has confidential dialogue achieved for twenty thousand political detainees in Myanmar?
The Mandate Allows for Public Denunciation: The ICRC’s own guidelines state that confidentiality is not absolute. You reserve the right to publicly denounce violations when they are major and repeated, when confidential dialogue has failed, and when it is in the best interest of the affected populations. The situation in Myanmar unequivocally meets all three criteria.

The Call for Enforcement

If the ICRC can allow the military junta to exploit the ICRC’s presence to parade Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in front of cameras in a deliberate staged show to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the world while over twenty thousand unnamed, un-profiled political prisoners endure unimaginable torture in the junta’s prisons, the ICRC can no longer claim its silence is serving the victims.

The people of Myanmar are not asking the ICRC to step outside its humanitarian mandate, nor are we asking the ICRC to abandon its core mission. However, we are demanding the strict enforcement of ICRC’s own operational guidelines and of international human rights standards. The ICRC should not allow itself to be used as a prop by those who slaughter civilians.

In addition, we urgently call upon the ICRC to enforce a principled position and prioritize the lives of Myanmar’s people. The ICRC must immediately trigger its internal guidelines to publicly denounce the military junta’s repeated violations of IHL, openly recognizing that confidential dialogue has completely failed.

Furthermore, the ICRC must insist on regular, independent and unimpeded access to all political prisoners and places of detention, free from the presence or interference of junta personnel. Any engagement with detainees, including State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, must be conducted solely for humanitarian purposes and must not be exploited for political theatre or public relations. The ICRC should prioritize facilitating meaningful family contact, including with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s son, Kim Aris, in accordance with its humanitarian mandate, while refusing participation in any military junta-staged photo opportunities or engagements that manufacture legitimacy for the junta.

History will not judge the ICRC by how strictly it adhered to its bylaws in a vacuum, but by whether it had the courage to recognize when those bylaws were being exploited and manipulated by the military junta. We urge the ICRC to reassess its purpose and strategy, to demand true, unmanipulated access to all political prisoners, and to stop allowing its confidentiality to be extracted for the junta’s legitimacy.

State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is the legitimate leader of Myanmar and continues to be recognized as such by the United Nations (UN). For the ICRC to allow itself to be used by the military junta for its political gain in response to ASEAN and world leaders demanding direct access to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the ICRC is participating in the exploitation of the democratically elected leader of the Myanmar people. This is entirely unacceptable. Human suffering in Myanmar is not a confidential matter. ICRC’s response to it should not be either.

The people of Myanmar do not question the importance of humanitarian engagement. We question whether humanitarian engagement can continue to fulfil its purpose when it is exploited and manipulated to legitimize those responsible for widespread violations of international humanitarian law. The credibility of the ICRC depends not only on preserving access, but also on ensuring that such access does not come at the expense of the very people it pledges to protect.

The people of Myanmar deserve an answer: How will the ICRC hold itself accountable to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Myanmar? What safeguards will the ICRC put in place to ensure that future humanitarian engagement cannot again be exploited as political propaganda by the illegal criminal junta?

For more information, please contact:

Khin Ohmar, Progressive Voice; info@progressive-voice.org
Salai Za Uk Ling, Chin Human Rights Organization; zauk@chinhumanrights.org
Debbie Stothard, ALTSEAN-BURMA; debbie@altsean.org
Karen Ames, US Campaign for Burma; karen@uscampaignforburma.org

Signed by 155 civil society organizations, including 2 organizations that have chosen not to disclose their names:

5/ Lapantang Strike Column
5/ of Zaya State Strike Committee
A3Y (Area 3 Youths)
Action Committee for Democracy Development (ACDD)
All Arakan Students’ & Youths’ Congress (AASYC)
ALTSEAN-Burma
Anti-Junta Alliance Yangon – AJAY
Anti-junta Forces Coordination Committee – Mandalay (AFCC – Mandalay)
Anyar Pyit Taing Htaung Lay Myar Strike Committee
Arakan Youth Peace Network
Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
Association of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters (HRDP)
Association of Spring Rainbow (ASR)
Athan – Freedom of Expression Activist Organization
Aung San Suu Kyi Park Norway
Ayadaw Strike Committee
Ayeyarwaddy West Development Organisation (AWDO), Magway
Ayeyarwaddy West Development Organisation (AWDO), Nagphe
Blood Money Campaign (BMC)
Board of Education Kyaukpadaung
Budalin Strike Force
Burmese Atheists
Burmese Women’s Union (BWU)
Campaign for a New Myanmar
CDM Medical Network (CDMMN)
Center for Action Points (CAP)
Chin Community in Norway
Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO)
Chindwin Riverside Villages Strike Committee
Civil Information Network (CIN)
Creative Home (CH)
CRPH Support Group, Norway and members organizations
Dagon University Student’s Union (DUSU)
Defend Myanmar Democracy (DMD)
Democratic Party for a New Society, Norway
Doh Atu – Ensemble pour le Myanmar
Educational Initiatives Myanmar
Equality Myanmar (EQMM)
Ethnic Youth General Strike Committee (Mandalay)
Federal Myanmar Tourism Committee
Federal Myanmar Tourism Union
Federation of Basic Education Worker Unions (FBEWU)
Free Burma Campaign (South Africa) (FBC(SA)
General Strike Collaboration Committee (GSCC)
General Strike Coordination Body – GSCB
Generation Wave (GW)
Hpakant Hmawlae Strike Force
Human Rights Educators’ Network (HREN)
Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM)
India for Myanmar
Info Birmanie
International Campaign for the Rohingya
Justice & Equality Focus (JEF)
Justice For Myanmar (JFM)
K’cho Ethnic Association (Europe)
Kachin Association Norway
Kachin Human Rights Watch (KHRW)
Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT)
Kalay Township People’s Strike Steering Committee – KPSSC
Kani Township Strike Steering Committee
Kantbalu Township Strike Force
Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
Karen Peace Support Network (KPSN)
Karen Women’s Organization (KWO)
Karen Youth Organization – KYO
Karenni Human Rights Group (KnHRG)
Karenni National Women’s Organization (KNWO)
Keng Tung Youth
Kyae Lak Myay
Kyauktada Strike Committee (KSC)
Latpadaung Anti-coup Strike Force
Latpadaung Region Strike Committee
LGBT Alliance Myanmar
Magway People’s Revolution Committee
Magway Region Human Rights Network
Mandalay Medical Family (MFM)
Mandalay Regional Youth Association – Revolution Core Group (MRYA – RCG)
Mandalay Strike Force (MSF)
MayMyo Strike Force
Metta Campaign Mandalay
MilkTeaAlliance Calendar Team
Monywa People’s Strike Steering Committee
Monywa-Amyint Road Strike Committee
Myanmar Accountability Project (MAP)
Myanmar Catholic Community In Norway
Myanmar Community in Norway
Myanmar Hindu Union
Myanmar Labour Alliance (MLA)
Myanmar People Alliance (Shan State)
Myanmar Women Peace and Security (M-WPS)
Myaung People Strike Steering Committee
MyaYar Knowledge Tree
Myingyan Civilian Movement Committee
Network for Human Rights Documentation-Burma (ND-Burma)
New Myanmar Foundation
New Rehmonnya Federated Force – NRFF
NLD Organization Committee (International) Norway
No Business With Genocide
Nonviolence International
Norway Matu Community
Norway Rvwang Community
OCTOPUS (Youth Organization)
Pakokku Youth Development Council (PYDC)
Pale People’s Strike Steering Committee
People Movement Platform Myanmar
Progressive Voice (PV)
Queers of Burma Alternative (QBA)
Rohingya Community in Norway
Rohingya Maìyafuìnor Collaborative Network (RMCN)
RW Welfare society (RWWS)
Sagaing Forum Federation
SEA Junction
Shan MATA
Shwebo Strike Force
Sisters 2 Sisters
Sitt Nyein Pann Foundation (SNPF)
Southern Initiative (SI)
Southern Youth Development Organization
Spring Friends
Synergy – Social Harmony Organization
Thint Myat Lo Thu Myar Organization
University of Medicine Mandalay Student Union Revolutionary Front – UMMSURF
University Students’ Unions Alumni Force
US Campaign for Burma
Volunteers in Myanmar
Wetlet Strike Committee
White Coat Society Yangon (WCSY)
Women Advocacy Coalition – Myanmar (WAC-M)
Women Alliance Burma (WAB)
Women Lead Resource Center
Women’s League of Burma (WLB)
Women’s Organization of Political Prisoners (WOPP)
Women’s Peace Network
Yadanabon University Students’ Union (YDNBUSU)
Yain Nweh Par (Rainbow Win The Storm – RIS)
Yangon Deaf Group
Yinmarbin-Sarlingyi All Villages People Strike Leading Committee
Youth Empowerment
Youth for Democratization of Myanmar (UDM)
Youth Resources Strike Committee – Chaung U Township
Zomi Christian Fellowship of Norway
Zomi Community Norway
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Other Human Rights Reports

Myanmar Mechanism investigations reveal deliberate attacks on civilians by the Myanmar military – Annual ReportAugust 12, 2026 - 9:49 am
Geneva, 11 August 2026 – Investigations by the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (Mechanism), as detailed in its Annual Report released today, show a pattern of deliberate aerial attacks on civilians, arbitrary detentions, torture and sexual violence committed by the Myanmar military. The Myanmar military escalated its aerial attacks and other crimes against civilians in the lead-up to […]

Spring Revolution

Civil Society Position Paper on ASEAN’s Goal of a Myanmar-Owned and -Led SolutionDecember 18, 2024 - 12:11 pm
Recommendations to ASEAN and Its Member States (1) Move beyond the 5PC to achieve a Myanmar people-led and people-centered solution to the crisis in Myanmar. ASEAN’s “Myanmar-owned and -led” approach must be backed by genuine political will that aligns with and supports the collective aspirations of the people of Myanmar. (2) Cease all pressure on […]
The Airstrikes after the journey to the China of the Junta Military LeaderDecember 10, 2024 - 1:28 pm
Operation 1027 was a coordinated military attack against the junta on October 27th, 2023. It was carried out by the Northern Brotherhood, which includes the Arakan Army, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army. Several months later, the Three Brotherhood Alliance held three meetings to negotiate with China on January 11 […]

Multimedia

GenocideSeptember 2, 2025 - 9:42 am
Crimes Against HumanityJune 16, 2025 - 7:55 am
International Humanitarian Law Cartoon AnimatonApril 29, 2025 - 8:37 am
အတိတ်မှ ဆိုးရွားသည့် အကြီးအကျယ် လူ့အခွင့်အရေးချိုးဖောက်မှုများ ထပ်မံမဖြစ်ပွားစေရေးအ တွက် အာမခံခြင်း (Guarantees of non-recurrence)February 10, 2025 - 9:58 am

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.

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