Mar 2, 2024 | DFF, Open Letters
To Members of the United Nations Security Council
CC:
UN Human Rights Council Members
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar
1 March 2024
Re: Security Council must act now as Myanmar military junta’s forced conscription endangers peace, stability, and human security in Myanmar and the region
Your Excellencies,
We, 397 civil society organizations, call on the UN Security Council (UNSC) to take immediate action to ensure peace and stability in the region following the Myanmar military junta’s illegal enforcement of the conscription law. In particular, we call on Japan, as the President of the UNSC in March 2024, to convene an emergency meeting to put forward a binding resolution under Chapter VII of the UN Charter to impose targeted economic sanctions and a comprehensive arms embargo against the junta, and refer the crisis in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court or create an ad hoc tribunal. In addition, the UNSC must provide substantial support to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as declared in Resolution 2669, and assist Myanmar’s neighboring countries to promptly guarantee legal protection for people fleeing the junta’s forced conscription and mass atrocity crimes.
On 10 February 2024, the military junta announced the enforcement of the People’s Military Service Law, which the past military regime passed in 2010. Men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 will be at risk of forced conscription, and the age further extends to 45 and 35, respectively, for those with expert professions. Up to 14 million people across Myanmar are deemed eligible for this forced conscription, which requires serving up to five years during a state of emergency as is currently in place by the junta’s illegal declaration. Individuals face prison sentences of up to five years, hefty fines, or both, for failing to report for duty. The junta also reserves its arbitrary power to recall those who have already finished their military service.
The junta’s forced conscription efforts exacerbate the already unprecedented violence caused by its countrywide terror campaign. As it rapidly loses ground to democratic resistance forces, the junta has resorted to forced conscription as psychological warfare to terrorize the population into submission, force people to kill each other against their conscience, and inflame inter-ethnic and inter-religious tension. This ruthless measure underlines the junta’s calculated move to escalate atrocities, exploiting new conscripts as expendable human shields, porters, and frontline fighters—evident in the Myanmar military’s sordid history, particularly its forced recruitment of children in violation of international law. The forced conscription thus explicitly goes against the UNSC’s demand for an immediate end to all forms of violence in Resolution 2669.
This scheme to forcibly recruit 60,000 men in the first round will compound the severe instability and human insecurity that the junta has already unleashed on Southeast Asia. Young men have been kidnapped or otherwise compelled to join military service, according to the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar. Hundreds of Rohingya in internment camps in Rakhine State are being arrested and recruited into service, or persuaded to enlist in exchange for freedom of movement. Other reports indicate people in Bago Region and Yangon City are being forced to serve, leaving them no other choice but to bribe junta personnel or face outright extortion to evade conscription. Individuals in disenfranchised and impoverished sectors, such as garment workers, lack such options as the junta’s workforce data collection is underway.
Meanwhile, the junta’s Labor Ministry curtails a route to flee the country by suspending recruitment drives of the Myanmar Overseas Employment Agencies Association. These realities will only lead to a massive influx of refugees and trafficking survivors into neighboring countries with track records of non-compliance with their international obligations, ensuring insufficient aid, no legal protection, and risk of refoulement.
For over three years since the military’s illegal coup attempt, the people of Myanmar nationwide have categorically and unequivocally rejected the Myanmar military’s futile attempts to seize power. The military junta has absolutely no legal authority to enforce any law in Myanmar. In fact, this forced conscription law is nothing more than modern slavery or forced labor under both domestic and international law.
We are alarmed by the sequence of events which led to the junta’s forced conscription: shortly after the ASEAN Special Envoy to Myanmar’s visit to Naypyitaw in January, and the Thailand-initiated and ASEAN-endorsed humanitarian assistance center in early February. Rather than restoring regional peace and stability and ensuring human security in Southeast Asia, these actions taken by the ASEAN Special Envoy and Thailand have only served to lend false legitimacy to the junta, emboldening it to intensify its terror campaign through forced conscription.
ASEAN’s ineffective actions have enabled the junta to commit more atrocity crimes with total impunity, while only deepening the bloc’s complicity in these crimes. In addition, we are gravely concerned by Thailand’s approach to humanitarian assistance, as it involves the Myanmar Red Cross which is part of the Myanmar military’s security apparatus and cannot be trusted as a partner to provide humanitarian assistance to those subject to the junta’s heinous crimes.
Excellencies, the UNSC can no longer continue to recklessly defer to ASEAN and its harmful approach which have to date jeopardized peace and stability in Myanmar and the region. With human security and civilian protection as its guiding principles, the UNSC must coordinate countries in the region to provide legal protection for Myanmar people fleeing from the junta’s terror campaign, including forced conscription and atrocities.
As a criminal entity, the Myanmar military has also facilitated the expansion of criminally run zones in Myanmar—now hubs for transnational crimes, breeding illegal online scam centers and human trafficking from which it has profited. These organized crimes severely endanger peace and security in the region and beyond. In the face of these nefarious activities, Myanmar’s democratic resistance forces have pledged to join forces with China and Thailand to dismantle the criminal hubs. In this regard, the UNSC must provide political and practical support to these resistance forces to topple the criminal Myanmar military and combat this problem effectively.
As the military junta weaponizes its forced conscription law, it is of utmost urgency that the UNSC act decisively: fulfill its mandate and implement its own resolutions to protect the people of Myanmar and establish peace and stability in Myanmar and the region. Once again, we urgently call on the UNSC to adopt a binding resolution under Chapter VII of the UN Charter that enforces targeted economic sanctions and a comprehensive arms embargo against the junta, and refers the crisis in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court or establishes an ad hoc international criminal tribunal. Regional peace and stability will remain elusive unless and until peace and stability is secured in Myanmar, and the Myanmar military, as an illegal and international criminal entity, is held accountable for its decades of mass atrocity crimes, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
Signed by 397civil society organizations, including 94 organizations that have chosen not to disclose their names because of the junta’s continued violence in Myanmar.
See the full list of signatories here.
Apr 18, 2023 | DFF, Open Letters
To: The Member States of the United Nations Security Council
CC: The United Nations Secretary-General
17 April 2023
Open Letter: The United Nations Security Council’s meeting on Myanmar must lead to firm measures against the junta
Your Excellencies,
We, the undersigned 546 Myanmar, regional and international civil society organizations (CSOs), welcome the United Kingdom’s request for an urgent Security Council discussion on Myanmar to address the illegal military junta’s worst civilian massacre since its failed coup, as well as the junta’s categorical refusal to comply with Security Council Resolution 2669 on Myanmar (December 2022). This “Any Other Business” discussion on 13 April must be followed by a dedicated Council meeting on the situation in Myanmar that leads to punitive measures against the junta under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
On Tuesday 11 April 2023, the illegal military junta in Myanmar launched an aerial attack on a civilian gathering of around 300 people in Pa Zi Gyi Village, Kanbalu Township, Sagaing Region. At least 168 people were killed, including 24 women and 40 children. During the attack, a junta’s fighter jet flew over the village in the morning and dropped two bombs on the gathering. It was followed by a junta helicopter gunship that then opened fire on the crowd. Some of the victims’ bodies were so badly maimed they could not be identified. A second attack on the same location was launched by the junta in the evening, with four more bombs dropped, while victims’ bodies were still being retrieved.
The junta’s actions are a flagrant violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2669, which demanded “an immediate end to all forms of violence throughout the country” (OP1). Yet, since the Security Council adopted the Resolution in December 2022, the military junta has only escalated its campaign of terror and violence against the people of Myanmar.
The airstrike on Pa Zi Gyi Village came just one day after junta airstrikes in Va and Waibula Villages of Falam Township in Chin State, which killed nine civilians and destroyed homes and schools. Throughout March 2023, the junta’s so-called “Ogre Column” has carried out a series of raids on villages in southern Sagaing Region, massacring more than 30 people, including children, and decapitating and dismembering victims’ bodies. On 11 March, junta forces killed 29 civilians, including three monks, at a monastery in Pinlaung Township, Shan State. On 14 and 16 February 2023, the junta’s jet fighters dropped bombs in Mutraw District, Karen State, destroying two rice warehouses and seven schools.
Last week, the UN Human Rights Council adopted Resolution on Myanmar (A/HRC/52/32) by consensus that condemned the junta’s deliberate, widespread, indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force against civilians. The resolution referred directly to the junta’s airstrike against a school in Let Yet Kone Village, Sagaing Region in September 2022 that killed 11 children, and its airstrike one month later targeting a concert in Hpakant, Kachin State, that killed more than 60 people. The Human Rights Council Resolution demanded that the junta immediately cease all air strikes. The junta responded with the April 11 attack on Pa Zi Gyi Village.
At the same time as launching ground and increasing aerial attacks on civilians in many states and regions where the people’s resistance movement has taken strongholds, the junta is deliberately forcibly displacing people and cutting off humanitarian access to vast parts of the country. According to the most recent figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 1.8 million people are now displaced inside Myanmar, but this number of displacements is likely higher. The junta is deliberately fuelling a nationwide humanitarian emergency to advance its political and military agenda.
Excellencies, the military junta has no regard for the lives of the Myanmar people, no regard for the rule of law, and no regard for international peace and security. The junta will not respond to words, only to action. Therefore, we call on the UN Security Council to adopt firm measures under Chapter VII of the UN Charter to enforce the military junta’s compliance with Resolution 2669. Those measures should include targeted economic sanctions against the military junta, a comprehensive arms embargo including on aviation fuel, and referral of the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court or the establishment of an ad hoc tribunal.
Resolution 2669 also calls for “concrete and immediate actions, noting the military’s commitments to ASEAN Leaders, to effectively and fully implement ASEAN’s Five Point Consensus” (OP6). But there will be no progress made towards the implementation of the Five Point Consensus while the junta’s violence continues and its use of airstrikes against civilians increases. If the Security Council does not act now, we fear the crisis in Myanmar will rapidly reach the point of no return.
For more information, please contact:
Signed by 546 civil society organizations, including 248 CSOs who have chosen to not disclose their name.
Click here for the full list of signatories.
Jan 25, 2022 | DFF, Statements
We, the undersigned 286 organizations stress the need, at an absolute minimum, to convene an open meeting of the UN Security Council to address the deteriorating humanitarian situation and urgent civilian protection concerns in Myanmar as a matter of extreme urgency.
As we approach one year since the attempted coup on 1 February, all UN Security Council member states have a shared responsibility to address the crisis in an open setting and share national positions on actions the UN Security Council should be taking. Closed meetings and press statements are not working.
We call on Norway as UN Security Council President, the UK as Myanmar “penholder” and all supportive states to table the open debate before the one-year anniversary and require other member states to declare their support.
Signed by:
- Action Aid International
- Action Committee for Democracy Development
- Ah Nah Podcast: Conversations with Myanmar
- Albany Karen Community, Albany NY
- All Arakan Students’ and Youths’ Congress
- All Burma Democratic Face in New Zealand
- Alternative Solutions for Rural Communities (ASORCOM)
- ALTSEAN-Burma
- American Baptist Churches USA
- American Rohingya Advocacy/Arakan Institute for Peace and Development
- Amnesty International
- Arizona Kachin Community, AZ
- ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights
- Asia Democracy Network
- Asian Dignity Initiative
- Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
- Association of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters
- Athan – Freedom of Expression Activist Organization
- Auckland Kachin Community NZ
- Auckland Zomi Community
- Australia Karen Organisation
- Backpack Health Workers Team
- Blood Money Campaign
- Boat People SOS
- Burma Action Ireland
- Burma Campaign UK
- Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN)
- Burma Medical Association
- Burma Task Force
- Burmese American Millennials
- Burmese Democratic Forces
- Burmese People in Ireland
- Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK
- Burmese Rohingya Welfare Organisation New Zealand
- Burmese Women’s Union
- Calgary Karen Community Association (CKCA)
- California Kachin Community, CA
- Campaign for a New Myanmar
- Canadian Rohingya Development Initiative (CRDI)
- Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)
- CHANGJAK21
- Chin Community of Auckland
- Chin Leaders of Tomorrow (CLT)
- CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
- Clean Clothes Campaign
- Coalition to Abolish Modern-day Slavery in Asia (CAMSA)
- Committee for Religious Freedom in Vietnam
- CRPH & NUG Supporters Ireland
- CRPH Funding Ireland
- Dallas Kachin Community, TX
- DEEKU, the Karenni Community of TX
- Democracy for Myanmar – Working Group (NZ)
- Democracy, Peace and Women’s Organization – DPW
- Dooplaya Karen Community Development Group
- Dr. Denis Mukwege Foundation
- Edmonton Karen Community Youth Organization
- Equality Myanmar
- European Karen Network
- European Rohingya Council
- Federal Myanmar Benevolence Group (NZ)
- Florida Kachin Community, FL
- Fortify Rights
- Free Burma Action Bay/USA/Global
- Free Myanmar Campaign USA/BACI
- Free Myanmar Inc.
- Freedom for Burma
- Freedom Justice Equality for Myanmar
- Future Light Center
- Future Thanlwin
- Generation Wave
- Georgia Kachin Community, GA
- Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
- Global Justice Center
- Global Movement for Myanmar Democracy (GM4MD)
- Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP)
- Houston Kachin Community, TX
- Human Rights Foundation of Monland
- Human Rights Research and Education Centre, University of Ottawa
- Info Birmanie
- Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID)
- Inter Pares
- International Campaign for the Rohingya
- International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
- International Karen Organisation
- International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
- Iowa Kachin Community, IA
- Kachin American Community (Portland – Vancouver)
- Kachin Community of Indiana, IN
- Kachin Community of USA
- Kachin Women’s Association Thailand
- Kansas Karenni Community, KS
- Karen American Association of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI
- Karen Association of Huron, SD
- Karen Community Association UK
- Karen Community in Syracuse, NY
- Karen Community in the Netherlands
- Karen Community of Akron, OH
- Karen Community of America
- Karen Community of Canada (KCC)
- Karen Community of Czech Republic
- Karen Community of Finland
- Karen Community of Hamilton
- Karen Community of Iowa, IA
- Karen Community of Ireland
- Karen Community of Israel
- Karen Community of Kansas City, KS & MO
- Karen Community of Kitchener & Waterloo
- Karen Community of Leamington
- Karen Community of Lethbridge
- Karen Community of London
- Karen Community of Louisville, KY
- Karen Community of Minnesota, MN
- Karen Community of North Carolina, NC
- Karen Community of Ottawa
- Karen Community of Regina
- Karen Community of Rochester, Rochester, NY
- Karen Community of Saskatoon
- Karen Community of Thunderbay
- Karen Community of Toronto
- Karen Community of Windsor
- Karen Community of Winnipeg
- Karen Community Society of British Columbia (KCSBC)
- Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN)
- Karen Finland Culture Association
- Karen Human Rights Group
- Karen Organization of Illinois, IL
- Karen Peace Support Network
- Karen Society of Nebraska
- Karen Society of Nebraska, NE
- Karen Swedish Community (KSC)
- Karen Thai Group
- Karen Women’s Organization
- Karen Youth Education Pathways
- Karen Youth Networks
- Karen Youth of Norway
- Karen Youth of Toronto
- Karen Youth Organization
- Karen Youth UK (KYUK)
- Karenni Baptist Association in Finland
- Karenni Baptist Convention of America
- Karenni Civil Society Network
- Karenni Community of Amarillo, TX
- Karenni Community of Arizona, AZ
- Karenni Community of Arkansas, AK
- Karenni Community of Austin, TX
- Karenni Community of Bowling Green, KY
- Karenni Community of Buffalo, NY
- Karenni Community of Chicago, IL
- Karenni Community of Colorado, CO
- Karenni Community of Connecticut, CT
- Karenni Community of Dallas, TX
- Karenni Community of Des Moines, IA
- Karenni Community of Florida, FL
- Karenni Community of Fort Wayne, IN
- Karenni Community of Fort Worth, TX
- Karenni Community of Georgia, GA
- Karenni Community of Grand Rapid, MI
- Karenni Community of Houston, TX
- Karenni Community of Idaho, ID
- Karenni Community of Indianapolis, IN
- Karenni Community of Lansing, MI
- Karenni Community of Louisville, KY
- Karenni Community of Massachusetts, MA
- Karenni Community of Minnesota, MN
- Karenni Community of Missouri, MO
- Karenni Community of New Jersey, NJ
- Karenni Community of North Carolina, NC
- Karenni Community of Portland, OR
- Karenni Community of Rockford, IL
- Karenni Community of San Antonio, TX
- Karenni Community of Sioux Falls, SD
- Karenni Community of Utica, NY
- Karenni Community of Washington, WI
- Karenni Community of Wisconsin, WI
- Karenni Education Department (KnED)
- Karenni Evergreen (KEG)
- Karenni Federation of Australia
- Karenni Health Department (KnHD)
- Karenni Human Rights Group
- Karenni Legal and Human Rights Center (KnLHRC)
- Karenni Literacy and Culture Development Committee (KLCDC)
- Karenni National Society (KNS-Japan)
- Karenni National Women’s Organization
- Karenni National Youth Organization (KNYO)
- Karenni Refugee Committee (KnRC)
- Karenni Social Welfare and Development Centre (KSWDC)
- Karenni Society Finland RY
- Karenni Society of Canada
- Karenni Society of New Zealand
- Karenni Society of Omaha, NE
- Karenni Student Union (KSU)
- Karenni Talkshow-KTS, USA
- Karenni Youth of Minnesota, MN
- Karenni-American Association
- Karenni-American Catholic Association
- Kayah State Student Union (KSSU)
- Kayahlilaykloe, Austin, TX
- Kayahliphu Youth – KLY
- Kayan New Generation Youth (KNGY)
- Kayan Women Organization (KyWO)
- Keng Tung Youth
- Kentucky Kachin Community, KY
- KnA-Kay Phoe Du Program
- Korea Karen Organization
- Korea Karen Youth Organization
- Korean House for International Solidarity
- Korean Solidarity for Overseas Community Organization
- La Communauté Birmane de France
- LA Rohingya Association/America Rohingya Justice Network
- Louisiana Kachin Community, LO
- Maryland Kachin Community, MD
- Mekong Watch
- Metta Campaign Mandalay
- Michigan Kachin Community, MI
- MiningWatch Canada
- Minnesota Kachin Community, MN
- Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies
- MY STORY Photo Project Association
- Myanmar Accountability Project
- Myanmar Advocacy Coalition
- Myanmar Democratic Force in Denmark
- Myanmar Engineers – New Zealand
- Myanmar Family Community Ireland (MFCI)
- Myanmar Gonye (New Zealand)
- Myanmar People Alliance (Shan State)
- Myanmar Students’ Union in New Zealand
- Nationalities Alliance of Burma USA
- Network for Advocacy Action (Tanintharyi)
- Network for Human Rights Documentation-Burma (ND-Burma)
- Never Again Coalition
- New York Kachin Community, NY
- New Zealand Doctors for NUG
- New Zealand Karen Association
- New Zealand Zo Community Inc.
- Nguyen Van Ly Foundation
- No Business With Genocide
- North Carolina Kachin Community, NC
- Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC)
- Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica
- Olive Organization
- Omaha Kachin Community, NE
- Organization Of Karenni Development Malaysia
- Oversea Karen Organization Japan
- Overseas Mon Association-New Zealand
- Pennsylvania Kachin Community, PA
- People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD)
- Physicians for Human Rights (PHR)
- Progressive Voice
- Pyithu Gonye (New Zealand)
- Refugees International
- Rochester Karenni Community, NY
- Rohingya Action Ireland
- Rohingya Centre of Canada
- Rohingya Refugee Network (RRN)
- Rvwang Community Association New Zealand
- Save and Care Organization for Ethnic Women at Border Areas
- Save Myanmar Fundraising Group (New Zealand)
- Save the Children
- Shan Community (New Zealand)
- Shan MATA
- Sisters 2 Sisters
- South Carolina Kachin Community, SC
- Southern Youth Development Organization
- Stefanus Alliance International
- Students for Free Burma
- Support the Democracy Movement in Burma
- Swedish Burma Committee
- Synergy – Social Harmony Organization
- Ta’ang Women’s Organization
- Ta’ang Legal Aid
- Tanitharyi Women Network
- Tennessee Kachin Community, TN
- Thint Myat Lo Thu Myar
- U.S. Advocacy Coalition for Myanmar (USACM)
- U.S. Campaign for Burma
- Union of Karenni State Youth
- Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
- Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights, University of Cincinnati College of Law
- Utica Karen Community, NY
- Vietnam Coalition Against Torture
- Virginia Kachin Community, VA
- Washington Kachin Community, WA
- West Virginia Kachin Community, WV
- Women for Women Foundation (Karenni State)
- Women’s League of Burma
- Women’s Peace Network
