Myanmar’s civic space is rated ‘closed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor. Since the 2021 coup, thousands of activists and protesters have been detained on fabricated charges including terrorism, incitement and sedition. Many have been convicted by secret military tribunals in unfair trials and given harsh sentences, including the death penalty. Some have been tortured or killed. There has also been an unrelenting crackdown on the media.
In their January 2025 annual report, Human Rights Watch highlighted that in 2024 the junta severely restricted internet and phone services, with rolling shutdowns around the country, particularly in conflict areas. Junta forces have arbitrarily arrested activists, journalists, humanitarian workers, lawyers, and religious leaders. The use of torture, sexual violence and other ill-treatment is rampant in prisons, interrogation centres, military bases, and other detention sites. About 630,000 Rohingya remain in Rakhine State, subject to persecution, deprivation of liberty and systematic abuses that amount to crimes against humanity reminiscent of apartheid South Africa.
Four years on from the coup, the UN Human Rights Office said that the junta had ramped up violence against civilians to unprecedented levels in 2024. An analysis of the conflict throughout 2024 found that as the military’s grip on power eroded, it launched wave after wave of retaliatory air strikes and artillery shelling on civilians and civilian populated areas, forced thousands of young people into military service, conducted arbitrary arrests and prosecutions, caused mass displacement, and denied access to humanitarians, even in the face of natural disasters.
In October 2024, Myanmar civil society organisations called on ASEAN to end all engagement with the Myanmar military junta; exclude all representatives of the military junta, both political and non-political, from ASEAN’s platforms at all levels; formally engage with and provide political support to the Myanmar people’s legitimate representatives; collaborate with locally led civil society; and support the Myanmar people’s efforts for transitional justice.
A new round of sanctions was imposed in October 2024 by Canada, the EU and UK targeting the military’s sources of funds, arms, equipment and jet fuel.
In November 2024, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced that it had filed a request with the court for an arrest warrant for Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar Defence Services, for the crimes against humanity of deportation and persecution of Rohingya.
In February 2024, a court in Argentina ruled that international arrest warrants be issued for junta chief Min Aung Hlaing and 22 other military officials for crimes committed against the Rohingya Muslim minority.
As a result of years of work by the CSO Working Group on Independent National Human Rights Institutions (Burma/Myanmar), in January 2025, the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) confirmed its decision to remove the accreditation status of the junta-controlled Myanmar National Human Rights Commission. The body has long been a proxy for the military junta to try and whitewash its grave violations.
Five years after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a legally binding order to protect the Rohingya in Burma from further harm, the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK said that the orders of the court are still being ignored by the junta and other armed groups in Burma.
On 7th February 2025, international election watchdogs urged the international community to deny any kind of support to the junta’s “illegitimate” planned polls. In a joint statement, they reiterated concerns first raised in a 2023 declaration, which dismissed any junta-led election as an attempt to entrench military rule rather than restore democracy. The groups said a genuine election in Myanmar is “impossible under current conditions” where opposition parties remain banned, political leaders and democracy activists languish in jail, and a free press is suppressed.
In recent months, a new draconian cybersecurity law was enacted while a law on films, increases restrictions and sentences was amended. The crackdown on journalists continues, two pro-democracy activists were arrested and at risk of torture and a civil society group reports deaths of political prisoners due to insufficient healthcare and medical treatment. Peaceful protests continue to be documented by a civil society group despite the severe restrictions and attacks on civic space.
Expression
New draconian cybersecurity law enacted
In January 2025, the junta enacted a new Cybersecurity Law that analysts say will provide the junta with extensive control over access to information.
The expansive law — which has 16 chapters and 88 articles — includes a provision penalising the unauthorised use of virtual private networks (VPNs) in Myanmar. VPNs have become a vital technology in post-coup Myanmar: with the media being brought nearly exclusively under state control, and most of the country’s journalists in prison, underground, or in some form of exile, they are widely used to circumvent internet restrictions, and to gain access to information and send information out of the country. Although the military has begun blocking access to VPNs, the law sets out a penalty of six months in prison and a fine for “unauthorised VPN installation or service.”
The law includes powers to blacklist digital platform service providers who fail to prevent, remove or cease circulation of content deemed by the junta as "disinformation" or "rumours" that could damage unity or stability. Digital platform service providers are now required to collect the names and data of their users for up to three years, and to disclose those details to the authorities.
The law additionally includes penalties for anyone found to have read, stored or shared articles from media outlets or groups banned or labelled as terrorists by the military council. The law also states that “Myanmar citizens residing in foreign countries shall be liable to punishment under this law if they commit any offence” which effectively extends the provisions of the law to the large diaspora of exiled junta opponents, including much of the nation’s independent media.
The ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) said that the law “poses a profound threat to fundamental freedoms and directly contradicts the principles enshrined in Myanmar’s constitution. This draconian legislation is a calculated attempt by the junta to suppress dissent, stifle free expression, and violate the privacy of Myanmar’s citizens.”
Digital rights group Myanmar Internet Project said the law is more focused on suppressing rights than protecting the public.
Amended law on films increases sentences
In December 2024, the junta amended the Motion Picture Law, tripling the maximum jail time for anyone who exports a film or screens it domestically without approval from censorship officials.
The amended law increases the maximum punishment to three years in prison and a fine of two million kyats (USD 950). Those who commit the same offence a second time face up to five years in prison and a fine of three million kyats (USD 1,430), according to the amended law.
The previous version of the law laid out offences that include screening films without a certificate of approval from film censors or a film industry licence and making films without a licence.
The amended law adds clauses that criminalise “disrespectful remarks about the state,” “actions that harm the interests of the nation,” and “engaging in activities contrary to the law.” Violators of the added clauses face warnings and may be suspended from filmmaking for one to three years, the new law says.
Crackdown on journalists continues
The Independent Press Council Myanmar (IPCM) in January 2025 reported that since the military coup, seven journalists have been killed, and more than 200 have been arrested, with 43 still behind bars.
In a statement issued on 26th January 2025, IPCM detailed the arrests of journalists by the junta between February 2021 and 25th January 2025. It revealed that the junta was responsible for the deaths of seven journalists through torture and extrajudicial killings. Among the 43 currently imprisoned, 11 are serving long-term sentences, including life imprisonment, while the rest face prison terms ranging from three to ten years.
The IPCM highlighted that the military has targeted journalists under various laws, including sections 505(a) and 505(b) (prohibits speech that is critical of the military or that could cause public alarm), 124(a) of the Penal Code (sedition), the Unlawful Associations Act, the Telecommunications Act, and the Anti-Terrorism Act.
The junta has also revoked the licences of 15 media outlets and unilaterally amended media laws.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has ranked Myanmar as the world’s second-worst jailer of journalists, while Reporters Without Borders (RSF) placed the country among the ten worst nations for press freedom in its 2024 report.
Association
Two pro-democracy activists arrested and at risk of torture
In October 2024, two pro-democracy activists were arrested in Yangon. Paing Phyo Min and Shein Wai Aung were arrested on 9th October 2024 and sent to an interrogation centre. According to Amnesty International, their families were not able to contact them following their arrest.
Paing Phyo Min is known for his involvement with a group of young people performing Thangyat, a popular Myanmar traditional art form which fuses poetry, comedy and music to comment on social issues. In 2019, Paing Phyo Min and other members of an activist group called the Peacock Generation were arrested after performing Thangyat dressed as soldiers. For this, he was sentenced to six years in prison.
Shein Wai Aung, a former student at Dagon University in Yangon, has been active in peaceful protests and in supporting political prisoners in Myanmar.
Amnesty International said: “Protesting in Myanmar today is not the same as it was before the coup. Anyone involved in any kind of dissent against the military faces long jail terms, torture and other ill-treatment, and even death in custody.”
Civil society group reports deaths of political prisoners
The Political Prisoners Network – Myanmar (PPNM) reported on 31st December 2024 that 22 political prisoners had died in 2024 due to insufficient healthcare and medical treatment in Myanmar’s prisons.
A report by PPNM examining 41 prisons nationwide revealed that the deceased included 18 male political prisoners, three women, and one transgender individual. The report attributed the deaths to the lack of access to proper healthcare and medication.
Ko Thaik Htun Oo, a member of PPNM’s steering committee, said that those who perished included individuals denied nutritious food, detainees with injuries sustained during interrogations, and prisoners suffering from illnesses such as kidney disease caused by unclean drinking water and lack of adequate medical care.
The report also highlighted issues such as delays in obtaining emergency treatment, substandard care by government-appointed medical officers, and prolonged delays in granting hospital transfers due to security concerns.
In addition to the deaths, prison officials and other inmates unlawfully tortured and assaulted 148 political prisoners, both male and female. Among these, 76 were sentenced to solitary confinement, according to the report. 1,883 political prisoners were moved to prisons far from their families, while 35 women were detained along with their children.
The report emphasised the need for at least one full-time doctor in smaller prisons and called for reforms to ensure foreign medicines sent by families reach prisoners without interference. It also stressed the need to improve conditions related to food, accommodation, and clean drinking water.
Peaceful Assembly
Peaceful protests documented by civil society group
According to data collected by Data for Myanmar from January to December 2024, a total of 2,965 peaceful protests were recorded across Myanmar. Of these, 2,314 protests took place in Sagaing Region, representing 78 percent of the nationwide total.
Peaceful protests continue to occur in Yangon Region, Tanintharyi Region, and Magway Region. In 2024, a total of 2,846 peaceful protests were led by anti-coup protesters supporting federal democracy and the Spring Revolution. Other protests were about opposing the unjust conscription law, demanding international pressure on airstrikes affecting innocent civilians, and opposing the election, among others.
There were also protests by supporters of the junta and nationalist groups, local community members, primarily in conflict-affected areas, and workers, especially those working in industrial zones