51^st regular session of the UN Human Rights Council

Item 4: Interactive Dialogue on the oral update of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar

Delivered by Khin Ohmar

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

 21 September 2022

Mr. President,

The Myanmar military junta, in its nearly 20-months long terror campaign across Myanmar in an attempt to establish military rule, has ramped up its persecution of its opponents with the execution of four pro-democracy activists in July and unrelenting arrests of activists. Conditions in places of detention, where over 12000 political prisoners remain, are worsening with frequent killings, torture and ill-treatment, and sexual and gender-based violence.

In the latest demonstration of its brutality on 16 September, the junta has launched aerial attacks on a school and villages in Depayin township, Sagaing Region. At least 11 children were killed, and 17 injured. The perpetrators must be named and held accountable for these crimes.

Minority communities across Myanmar continue to bear the brunt of the junta’s brutality. Nearly 1 million people – predominantly from minority communities – are displaced throughout  the country and across borders, as a result of the junta’s indiscriminate violence.

The failure to secure accountability of the military for systemic discrimination and persecution against Rohingya and other minorities communities is at the root of the junta’s ongoing brutality and its sustained assault on the rule of law and human rights.

While Myanmar people’s resilience in the face of this unimaginable barbarity of the junta continues to grow strong, it is shameful that international community remains largely silent, or recently taken action that appear to legitimize the junta.

The international community and UN agencies must stop lending legitimacy to the illegal junta. Instead, they must scale up efforts to support the people’s aspirations for federal democracy; hold the junta accountable through the International Criminal Court (ICC), coordinate actions including targeted sanctions and comprehensive arms embargoes; and support local and community-based networks of humanitarian aid distribution, and provision of essential services such as health and education, including along the borders, through direct and flexible funding and assistance.

Thank you.