United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk addressed the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday, presenting a devastating assessment of Myanmar’s compounding human rights, environmental, and security crisis.
Türk warned that the complete collapse of the rule of law has allowed criminal syndicates and illicit extraction networks to flourish, while calling on the international community to halt arms transfers, reject results from the regime’s 2025-26 elections, and enforce human-rights-based benchmarks.
“Efforts to normalize relations without any sign whatsoever that the military are complying with fundamental obligations under international law will only fuel even greater violence and violations against civilians, in Myanmar and beyond,” Türk stated.
“Engagement should not legitimize a system that has disregarded all demands for restraint and committed endless violations.”
He told the U.N. that unregulated rare earth mining operations in Myanmar have surged by over 150 per cent since the 2021 military coup, relying on toxic chemicals such as lead, arsenic, and radioactive substances that drive rampant deforestation and contaminate river systems flowing into Thailand and the broader Mekong Basin.
All this while industrial-scale cyber scam operations have expanded rapidly along the Myanmar-Thailand border and into urban areas nationwide, generating a surge in transnational human trafficking, kidnapping, forced labor, and institutionalized sexual exploitation.
In Arakan State, the Rohingya community faces severe, overlapping abuses committed by both the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA), including arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and forced conscription.
The AA confiscation of Rohingya land in northern Arakan has further worsened these conditions, threatening local land rights and creating severe obstacles to future refugee repatriation.
In response to this deteriorating situation, Türk urged U.N. member states to formally refer the full situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC), via the U.N. Security Council, while imposing an immediate, comprehensive global embargo on arms, ammunition, jet fuel, and dual-use technologies.
He cautioned against “calibrated engagement” or recognizing military-orchestrated elections, emphasizing that normalizing diplomatic relations without military compliance will only fuel further atrocities.
Finally, Türk demanded an immediate end to the forced deportation of Rohingya and other refugees from neighboring nations, warning that such returns constitute a direct violation of the international legal principle of non-refoulement.
