High Commissioner Türk Decries “Litany Of Human Suffering” In Myanmar

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk
Update on the human rights situation in Myanmar
Geneva, 28 February 2025

Excellencies, distinguished delegates,

The human rights situation in Myanmar is among the worst in the world.

Today, I will go through a litany of human suffering that is difficult to fathom.

Conflict, displacement and economic collapse have combined to cause pain and misery across the country. Civilians are paying a terrible price. The number killed in violence in 2024 was the highest since the military launched their coup in 2021.

Fifteen million people face hunger this year and in the latest appalling development, up to two million people are reported to be at risk of famine.

Most civilians were killed in brutal and indiscriminate airstrikes and artillery shelling by the military, as it continues to lose its grip on power. The targeting of schools, places of worship, healthcare facilities, displacement camps and public events caused mass civilian casualties and displacement.

At least 1,824 people were killed in 2024, including 531 women and 248 children, but these figures are probably a fraction of the real numbers as there is no verified information from several key areas where heavy fighting took place.

Analysis by my Office suggests the military has attacked healthcare facilities and staff more than 1,500 times since the coup, killing 131 health professionals.

Armed groups opposed to the coup also targeted administrators, local politicians and people affiliated with the military. While this violence is not comparable in scale and scope to that carried out by the military, all parties must respect human rights and humanitarian law.

The military continued its campaign of terrorizing the population through acts of extreme brutality, including beheadings, burnings, mutilations, executions, torture, and the use of human shields.

Soldiers launched unprovoked attacks on villages where there was no active fighting.

For example, last October, the military conducted at least 13 airstrikes, burned up to 1,000 houses and killed at least 25 civilians across several villages in Budalin Township, Sagaing, in one day.

Nearly two thousand people have died in custody since the coup, including 410 in 2024 – more than one person per day. Analysis by my Office indicates most deaths were the result of summary executions and torture.

There are continued reports of the systematic use of torture and ill-treatment, including sexual violence, in places of detention. Conditions were reported to be horrific, with squalid facilities, overcrowding, rotten food and contaminated water.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis continues to rage. Over 3.5 million people are displaced, and 20 million are in need of humanitarian assistance.

Hunger is reaching catastrophic levels and agricultural productivity has declined by 16 per cent since 2021. Fertilizer shortages, skyrocketing fuel prices, and trade disruptions have driven the price of rice up by 47 per cent in some regions.

Mr. President,

I am gravely concerned by an upsurge of violence in Rakhine State. While there are no comprehensive verified figures, intense fighting between the military and the Arakan Army is estimated to have killed thousands of civilians and caused many more to flee.

Members of the Rohingya community are frequently caught between the parties, who target them with complete impunity.

Local sources reported at least 40 civilians were killed and 500 houses burned in just one incident in Kyauk Ni Maw fishing village in January of this year.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya are estimated to have crossed the border into Bangladesh in 2024, despite the border being formally closed. More than 8,000 fled by sea in 2024, an 80 per cent increase over 2023. At least 650 Rohingya, almost half of them children, died at sea.

In Western Rakhine, food production is projected to meet only 20 per cent of local needs by mid-2025. The United Nations Development Programme has warned of an imminent threat of famine and a regression into survival mode.

Mr. President,

The State Administrative Council took further steps in 2024 towards militarizing the entire population of Myanmar.

The activation of a law on military service led to coercive conscription into the armed forces, arbitrary arrests, often at gunpoint, and the enforced disappearance of women and men at military checkpoints and in displacement camps.

Men aged between 18 and 35, and women aged between 18 and 27, face a constant risk of arrest and recruitment into the armed forces. This has created widespread fear and further displacement. Many young people are attempting to seek safety outside the country – putting them at further risk of trafficking, extortion and exploitation, while increasing the regional impact of this crisis.

The creation of so-called ‘Security and Anti-terrorism Groups’ at the local level has also blurred the distinction between military and civilians, putting civilians at further risk.

Collectively, these policies have had a serious impact on the economy, which was already on its knees. Three-quarters of the population are at, or below, the poverty line. Less than 80 percent of Myanmar’s children are in school, and over 3.7 million young people have left to seek protection beyond the country’s borders.

Myanmar’s Gross Domestic Product has contracted by seventeen per cent since 2020 and is not projected to grow this year. The currency has plummeted, and restrictions on imports and supply chain disruptions sent prices soaring. Inflation is projected at thirty per cent this year.

As the formal economy collapsed, crime and corruption flourished. The Global Organized Crime Index reports Myanmar was the biggest nexus of organized crime in the world in 2024. The country remains the world’s main producer of opium, and one of the biggest manufacturers of synthetic drugs.

Scam centres in eastern Myanmar raise serious concerns across the region and worldwide, about human trafficking and other violations and abuses. People coerced into cybercrime are often subjected to torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, including sexual violence, arbitrary detention, and forced labour.

Even when freed, they risk being prosecuted in their own countries.

Mr. President,

It is abundantly clear that this is a situation of concern to the international community, with serious implications for peace and security in the region and beyond.

In response to this horrific situation, and reporting on this is very grim reading, it is imperative for the military immediately to end the violence, allow unhindered humanitarian access, and release all arbitrarily detained people – as demanded by Security Council resolution 2669.

In Rakhine State, the Arakan Army must do more to honour their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law, and protect all individuals within the areas they control.

Breaking the cycle of impunity that has characterized military rule in Myanmar over decades requires holding perpetrators of human rights violations and abuses to account.

In November, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court applied for a warrant of arrest against the head of the military junta, Min Aung Hlaing, for alleged crimes against humanity involving aspects of the deportation and persecution of the Rohingya in 2017. The Prosecutor has indicated that more applications for warrants will follow.

At the International Court of Justice, so far 11 States have intervened in the case brought by The Gambia against Myanmar, alleging violations of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

On the basis of principles of universal jurisdiction, an Argentinian federal court has issued an arrest warrant against Min Aung Hlaing and military and political leaders of Myanmar for the 2017 violence against the Rohingya.

These steps send an important signal, alongside the imposition by several countries and a regional organization of targeted sanctions against individuals and companies in Myanmar.

But given the humanitarian, political and economic impacts fueling instability across the region, the international community must do more.

I therefore repeat my call for an arms embargo, coupled with targeted sanctions consistent with international law – including on jet fuel and dual-use goods – to better protect the people of Myanmar.

Creative strategies are needed to provide humanitarian assistance across borders and support local service providers.

Member States, particularly those with influence, need to work together to bolster and support ASEAN members to end the violence and resolve the crisis. That will require a political path that includes not only the National Unity Government, ethnic armed groups, and the democracy movement, but also representatives from women’s groups, youth, and civil society.

I am deeply concerned by the impact funding cuts will have on Myanmar’s embattled civil society and humanitarians.

Amid challenging human rights situations around the world, I appeal to the international community to prioritize Myanmar.

Thank you.

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