The U.K. issued a joint statement with the E.U. welcoming the draft resolution submitted to the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC), on the “situation of human rights in Myanmar,” on Tuesday.
“The human rights crisis in Myanmar remains one of the most severe and urgent situations on our agenda, and the international community cannot look away,” said Eleanor Sanders, the U.K. human rights ambassador to the U.N., in a statement on March 31.
The draft resolution, which was introduced during the 58th session of the HRC, states that Burma still constitutes one of “the worst – and most active – human rights crises” five years after the military coup on Feb. 1, 2021 that ousted the democratically-elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party.
“Recent military airstrikes, including in Rakhine, Magway and Sagaing, continue to destroy homes, religious sites and shelters for displaced communities,” added Eleanor Sanders in her statement, which also called for accountability in Burma, the protection of civilians, and unrestricted access for aid due to the “spiralling humanitarian crisis.”
The draft resolution highlights the fact that the military regime led by Min Aung Hlaing, who seized power during the 2021 coup in Naypyidaw, continues to use its forces to attack civilians in communities nationwide, especially through the use of indiscriminate airstrikes.
It outlined “effective and targeted action” to stop the military from being able to access weapons to be able to carry out these attacks and referenced the conscription law enforced on Feb. 10, 2024, which stipulates that all male citizens aged 18 to 35, and women aged 18 to 27, must serve at least two years in the military.
The U.K. expressed its support for urgent implementation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Five-Point Consensus, which is a peace plan agreed to by Min Aung Hlaing in April 2021 but not implemented upon his return to Burma.
It called for closer cooperation between ASEAN and the U.N., including through their respective special envoys to Burma: ASEAN 2026 Chair The Philippines’ Theresa Lazaro and the U.N. Secretary-General’s Julie Bishop.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on March 9 that 73,350 civilians have been displaced from their homes due to conflict in Burma in the first two months of 2026.
The U.N. estimates that over 3.7 million people are displaced from their homes nationwide and listed as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
