Mizzima-Mar 2
Myanmar’s human rights crisis deepened sharply in 2025, with the year becoming the deadliest for children since the 2021 military coup, according to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
In its annual update released on 24 February, the UN rights office said violence against civilians escalated across the country, with verified civilian deaths from airstrikes reaching their highest levels since the coup.
The military governance, said the UN report, remained characterized by repression of political dissent, mass arbitrary arrests, conscription, widespread surveillance, and shrinking civic space. Nearly a quarter of Myanmar’s population faced severe acute food insecurity in 2025, the report found. The report warned of further deterioration due to economic mismanagement and restrictions on humanitarian access. The report was also critical of the military’s nationwide elections. The polls imposed by the junta lacked “basic elements of freedom, fairness, and representativeness” and risked exacerbating violence and societal polarization. The report also warned that both the military and opposition armed groups allowed transnational criminal networks to expand in areas under their control amid what it described as total impunity. The growth in illicit economies included drug production, scam centers, and illicit resource extraction. Read more at: https://eng.mizzima.com/2026/03/02/31744
