Open letter: UN General Assembly must denounce Myanmar military junta’s sham election, support Myanmar people’s democratic aspirations

4 September 2025

To:
Member States of the United Nations General Assembly
United Nations Secretary-General

4 September 2025

Open letter: UN General Assembly must denounce Myanmar military junta’s sham election, support Myanmar people’s democratic aspirations

Your Excellencies,

We—206 Myanmar, regional, and international civil society organizations—call on the Member States of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to adopt a resolution that categorically rejects the Myanmar military junta’s sham election and explicitly supports the Myanmar people’s ongoing efforts to establish bottom-up federal democracy. In this vein, we urge the UNGA to ensure that Ambassador U Kyaw Moe Tun retains his credentials as the Permanent Representative of Myanmar. We also urge the UNGA to end the mandate of the Special Envoy on Myanmar, and the Secretary-General to immediately assume a leadership role in addressing the crisis.

First, we call on the UNGA to adopt a resolution on Myanmar at its upcoming 80th Session that unequivocally denounces the junta’s sham election, as well as its violence and other coercive tactics to compel participation in this farcical exercise. Despite changing its name from “State Administration Council” to “State Security and Peace Commission,” the junta has neither the legal right nor the political legitimacy necessary to conduct any electoral process in Myanmar. The junta also severely lacks the effective territorial and administrative control over Myanmar necessary to conduct an “election.”

The military junta’s plan to hold a so-called election on 28 December 2025 is illegal. It is also a deliberate ongoing attempt to manufacture legitimacy while intensifying its campaign of violence, repression, and atrocity crimes against civilians. During the past two months, the junta has escalated lethal airstrikes, artillery shelling, and scorched-earth operations in areas where it lacks territorial and administrative control to the democratic resistance movement, targeting schools, monasteries, hospitals, homes, and internally displaced person camps. This is a concerted and murderous effort to terrorize entire communities and claim territory to prop up its sham election. On 17 August 2025, the junta bombed the town of Mawchi in Pasaung Township, Karenni State, killing at least 32 people including several children. Since late June, the junta has unleashed near-daily airstrikes on Pasaung Township, killing at least 52 civilians in two months.

The junta’s heinous attacks on civilians also foreshadow further violence and manufactured instability to coerce participation in its sham election—consistent with the Myanmar military’s track record of exploiting human suffering and repressing political opposition to consolidate power. During Cyclone Nargis in 2008, the then military regime obstructed relief efforts while forcing through its sham constitutional referendum. Today, the same tactics are evident. Following the massive Sagaing earthquake on 28 March 2025, the junta blocked humanitarian aid from reaching quake-devastated communities, while launching at least 982 airstrikes and artillery attacks, as of 16 June, in quake-affected areas and beyond. At the same time, the junta is systematically deregistering and barring numerous political parties through repressive measures such as its so-called “Political Party Registration Law.”

Second, the UNGA should also urge the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners, including elected representatives, journalists, members of the Civil Disobedience Movement, and other human rights defenders. The junta’s continued detention of more than 22,000 political prisoners underscores its complete disregard for human rights and the rule of law, compounded by its systematic infliction of torture, ill-treatment, and sexual and gender-based violence against political prisoners. The UNGA must take all measures possible for their immediate and unconditional release.

In tandem, we call on the UNGA to recognize and support the Myanmar people’s democratic aspirations and their ongoing efforts in building bottom-up governance to establish a federal democracy—the necessary foundation for attaining sustainable peace in Myanmar. Through the National Unity Government, the National Unity Consultative Council, and federal units including ethnic councils established by Myanmar’s longstanding ethnic resistance organizations, communities are advancing bottom-up governance structures within the frameworks of federal democracy and human rights principles. These bodies are delivering essential public services such as health care, education, public security, and humanitarian aid, while also developing and implementing policies on gender equality, transitional justice, and more. Such efforts on the ground demonstrate the aspirations, resilience, and resolve of the Myanmar people to build a just, peaceful, and inclusive society. It is time for the world to recognize their efforts and stand with them.

Moreover, we urge all UN Member States to ensure that Ambassador U Kyaw Moe Tun retains his credentials as the Permanent Representative of Myanmar to the UN. Ambassador U Kyaw Moe Tun was appointed by the elected representatives of the Myanmar people and continues to act in accordance with their democratic will. Any so-called election by the junta cannot override this legitimacy, which reflects the outcome of Myanmar’s last free and fair election. As such, any attempt by the military junta to claim Myanmar’s seat must be fully rejected. The junta lacks democratic legitimacy and effective control over the country, and remains a systematic perpetrator of international crimes. The UNGA’s unequivocal support for Ambassador U Kyaw Moe Tun’s credentials is essential to uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, as well as to support the people of Myanmar in their ongoing struggle to end military tyranny and establish a genuine federal democracy.

Finally, we once again urge the UNGA to terminate the mandate of the Special Envoy on Myanmar and the Secretary-General to immediately assume a more direct and active leadership role in addressing Myanmar’s polycrisis. Time and again, the Special Envoy mandate has proven unable to yield any meaningful or positive progress in ending the junta’s atrocity crimes or in alleviating the suffering of the Myanmar people. In tandem, current Special Envoy Julie Bishop’s business activities raise serious concerns about her capacity to maintain the requisite impartiality and independence for the successful execution of the mandate. The Secretary-General must urgently take the lead to coordinate international action to concertedly end the junta’s violence, ensure accountability for its crimes, and support the Myanmar people’s revolution for inclusive federal democracy.

The people of Myanmar have made their democratic aspirations and commitment clear. Now, the international community must urgently take concrete action to reject the military junta’s efforts to silence their voices and destroy their future. We urge Member States to act decisively at the 80th session of the UNGA: reject the junta’s sham election, call for immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners, support the people’s bottom-up federal democracy building efforts, retain Ambassador U Kyaw Moe Tun’s credentials, and end the Special Envoy’s mandate for stronger UN leadership in response to Myanmar’s crisis.

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