Interactive dialogue on the report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar

61st regular session of the UN Human Rights Council

Item 4: Interactive dialogue on the report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar

Oral statement delivered by Khin Ohmar

On behalf of the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)

13 March 2026

Madam Vice President,

We thank the Special Rapporteur for his report. As this is the last time you present to this Council in this capacity, we express our deep appreciation for your unwavering commitment to the protection of human rights and your solidarity with the people of Myanmar. Your work has been instrumental in keeping the international spotlight on the military’s ongoing atrocities, especially since the attempted coup in 2021.

The military continues its nationwide campaign of terror through airstrikes, artillery attacks, massacres, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, sexual and gender-based violence, and mass arbitrary arrests. It has engineered a devastating humanitarian crisis while blocking aid to more than 3.7 million internally displaced persons.

As it continues to lose territorial control, the junta seeks to legitimize itself through a violent and coercive sham election. During this process alone, the junta carried out more than 400 airstrikes, killing over 170 people.

We welcome the refusal by many members of the international community, including the EU and ASEAN, to recognize this farce or send election observers. We urge the States to reject its outcomes, strengthen targeted sanctions, and increase support for the Myanmar peoples’ efforts building a federal democracy.

We welcome ASEAN’s decision to advance safe, effective, and transparent humanitarian assistance, including cross-border aid. With one in three people in Myanmar now in need of humanitarian assistance and twelve million facing acute hunger, we urge the ASEAN Chair to urgently operationalize an aid delivery mechanism coordinated with Myanmar’s legitimate representatives, including the NUG, EROs, and civil society, to ensure assistance reaches communities without military interference.

Accountability remains paramount to ending the escalating atrocities and decades-long military’s blanket impunity. We welcome Timor-Leste’s decision to pursue legal proceedings against the Myanmar military and look forward to the verdict by the International Court of Justice. We call for further measures, including referral of Myanmar to the International Criminal Court under Article 14 of the Rome Statute.

Thank you, Madam Vice President.