The Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M) welcomes the renewed international attention given to Myanmar at the UN Human Rights Council’s 58th session, which concluded in Geneva on 4 April.
SAC-M attended the council’s second week meeting on 3-7 March, meeting with key political delegations and senior officials to bring attention to the situation on the ground in Myanmar, where the military junta is escalating air strikes against civilians as revolutionary actors expand their territorial reach, control and service delivery.
SAC-M’s advisors also held a media briefing in the UN’s Palais des Nations on 6 March to push for coordinated support for the people’s vision of a post-military federal democracy, and joined the panel of Forum-Asia’s side event which catalogued “four years of carnage in Myanmar”.
Plenary presentations by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk and the UN special rapporteur on Myanmar Tom Andrews pulled Myanmar back into the spotlight even before the devastating twin earthquakes of 28 March.
On 28 February, the high commissioner described the situation as “among the worst in the world” and shamed the military junta for inflicting a “litany of human suffering that is difficult to fathom”.
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He also pressed UN member states to look ahead to the “day after”, when the junta’s brutal repression ends, by supporting a political path that involves the National Unity Government (NUG), ethnic armed groups and representatives from women’s groups, youth and civil society.
On 19 March, the special rapporteur called on member states “to issue a declaration of conscience against this unfolding disaster.”
For Andrews, severe aid cuts – which have stripped millions of people in Myanmar of humanitarian assistance and have halved food rations for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh – are a “betrayal” that exposes “callous decisions being made with little thought, and apparently, no concern about the consequences”.
The special rapporteur also highlighted the reality on the ground in Myanmar, where the junta is being driven back and is steadily losing ground to a fierce people-led revolution.
The humanitarian situation in Myanmar has become exponentially worse since the earthquakes, which are a new tragedy heaped on an underlying catastrophe.
“Coordinated international action to support these efforts, deliver earthquake relief directly to the people and cut the junta’s access to weapons are absolutely critical,” Yanghee Lee of SAC-M said.
“Junta airstrikes are killing more civilians, including children, now than at any point in Myanmar’s history,” Lee added. “Even now the junta continues to bomb civilians devastated by the worst earthquake disaster to hit Myanmar in over a century.
“This is Min Aung Hlaing’s unspeakably cruel response to the efforts made by the Myanmar people to build a post-military future for their country.”
The Human Rights Council’s adoption of a new consensus resolution on Myanmar (58/20) on 3 April capped off the council’s address of Myanmar.
Credit goes to the EU for crafting and guiding through a text that contains strong new elements.
These include:
- Deep sympathy to the victims and survivors of the March 2025 earthquakes and a call upon the Myanmar military and other parties to cease all hostilities and facilitate full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access to all people in all affected regions
- Recognition of the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s filing of an application for an arrest warrant for junta leader Min Aung Hlaing for the alleged crimes against humanity of deportation and persecution of the Rohingya
- A call on all member states to cease the illicit transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Myanmar
- Acknowledgment of the NUG’s commitment to accept the ICC’s jurisdiction in accordance with Article 12 (3) of the Rome Statute
- Encouragement of the NUG to provide updates on the implementation of its policy position on the Rohingya in Rakhine state
- A call on the Myanmar military to accept that all national institutions, including the military, must serve under a democratically elected fully representative civilian government
- The noting of an Argentine court’s issuance of international arrest warrants under the principle of universal jurisdiction for alleged perpetrators of crimes committed against the Rohingya
The resolution is a clear call on member states and UN entities to take stronger action. It also provides an advocacy platform to the NUG, ethnic organisations, Myanmar civil society and the broader human rights movement with Asean and beyond.
“Asean has completely failed to secure peace and security for Myanmar and for the region,” Marzuki Darusman of SAC-M said. “And now the escalating junta violence, the sudden aid cuts and the earthquake disaster have made the horribly dire situation in Myanmar much worse.”
“Asean must lead a regional response to Myanmar with China, India, Bangladesh and others, in conjunction with the NUG, ethnic organisations and Myanmar civil society, to deliver humanitarian aid through cross-border channels to communities most in need, including those in areas outside the military’s control – the majority of the country,” Darusman said.
Resolution 58/20 also places renewed pressure on the Security Council and the General Assembly.
It is well past time for a new Security Council resolution on Myanmar, in follow-up to UN Security Council resolution 2669 (2022), that takes punitive measures against the military junta and mandates an immediate, large-scale humanitarian response to the earthquake catastrophe.
And June 2025 will mark four years since the General Assembly’s last plenary resolution on Myanmar’s situation (75/289), which has changed dramatically and irreversibly.
“For four years, the people of Myanmar were abandoned by the international community, including the General Assembly and the Security Council, at their time of greatest need,” Chris Sidoti of SAC-M said.
“It is unconscionable that the General Assembly has gone nearly four years without adopting a new resolution on the broader situation in Myanmar,” Sidoti added. “If ever the General Assembly is to act on Myanmar, it’s now.” – SAC-M
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
