On 20 March 2023, Lawyers for Lawyers and the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute delivered an oral statement during the Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Myanmar. The Interactive dialogue took place during the 52nd session of the UN Human Rights Council.
The statement reads as follows:
The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute and Lawyers for Lawyers condemn the ongoing human rights violations by the junta in Myanmar.
Since the coup, the junta continue to target pro-democracy activists, human rights defenders (including lawyers and journalists), and civil society, shrinking civic and political space.
Sham trials continue and political prisoners face lengthy prison sentences or the death penalty. We unequivocally condemn the junta’s execution of four political prisoners in July 2022 following summary and unfair trials, and Myanmar’s military government’s use of capital punishment as a tool to crush democracy activists. At least 103 political prisoners are on death row and at risk of execution, while 41 people have been sentenced to death in absentia.
Lawyers not only face closed courts and a lack of due process,v but are harassed, threatened, and arrested when defending political cases. In addition, the junta are actively undermining the independence of the judiciary by appointing junta-aligned judges.
Against this backdrop, the junta continue to defy international calls for accountability, including for atrocity crimes committed against the Rohingya and other ethnic and ethno-religious minorities.
We commend the UN Security Council for its recent condemnation of Myanmar’s junta for the executions and its demands for an immediate end to all forms of violence and respect for fundamental human rights and the rule of law.
We urge this Council to continue to robustly respond to the situation in Myanmar with action and call for an end to the attacks against all individuals, including lawyers, to cease the use of the death penalty, and to hold the junta accountable for all human rights violations.
