Yanghee Lee delivered the following address online at a hybrid discussion with the representatives of the diplo Human Rights Working Group and the UN Myanmar Country Team Human Rights Theme Group to mark International Human Rights Day 2025 on 10 December.

“Good afternoon,

It is a pleasure to join you today in marking International Human Rights Day.

I am particularly grateful for the opportunity to speak directly to the Diplo Human Rights Working Group and the UNCT’s Human Rights Theme Group. I am in Bangkok for a series of meeting on Myanmar this week, and today’s event could not have come at a better time.

 I will focus my remarks on human rights protection concerns in the election period and beyond. But to do that, it is important to first acknowledge that these concerns are not new, nor are they distinct from the established pattern of grave violations that the military junta has perpetrated over the past five years.

The specific threats we see to the enjoyment of human rights in relation to the sham elections are a calculated extension of the junta’s atrocity campaign.

I need not waste my breath or your time in setting out the reasons why the junta’s elections are illegitimate. Their credibility immediately collapses when held against international and even ASEAN standards. The logistical impossibility of the junta conducting an inclusive election with such limited effective control also betrays the absurdity of the exercise.

Instead, I will focus on the ways in which these elections are a new instrument of collective punishment against the Myanmar people, and a particularly perverse one given that they are cloaked as a “democratic” process.

A first and most obvious protection concern is the junta’s use of extreme violence as an enabler for its elections. The junta’s airstrikes have escalated since it announced its elections, with a deliberate intent to kill civilians, destroy homes and infrastructure, forcibly displace communities, and to punish perceived opponents. Indeed, these attacks have become a tool through which to shape and manipulate electoral participation. It is gerrymandering through atrocities. And there is no suggestion that the outcome of these sham elections will any way temper the junta’s campaign of violence.

Second is the junta’s large scale use of political imprisonment – accompanied by its dehumanising system of torture and sexual violence – to remove and punish perceived opponents and legitimate political opposition. When combined with the junta’s use of draconian “laws”, including the Penal Code, its Cyber Law and its new “Election Protection” law, an entire suite of protection concerns present – arbitrary detention, appalling treatment, outright denial of due process, and crackdowns on civic and political space and media freedom.

Third is the junta’s systematic weaponization of aid as a form of collective punishment. It is extremely likely that the junta will withhold humanitarian assistance to coerce communities into participating in the elections against their will or, again, to punish opponents.

These concerns are not new. Nor are they novel to the junta’s sham elections. They have been comprehensively documented by OHCHR and by my successor as UN Special Rapporteur, Tom Andrews, and they have repeatedly raised in UN and political forums by many of countries represented here today.

The question then is what are some of the things that the diplomatic community and the UNCT can do in response to the junta’s sham elections?

Firstly to the diplomatic community:

• Starve the junta of the oxygen of legitimacy. At a minimum, issue an international joint statement that condemns the elections and refuses to acknowledge their outcome, that makes it clear that there will be no engagement with the junta in its current or any future form, and that pressures ASEAN Members as a bloc but also individually to similarly condemn the elections and to play no role in them, such as by sending observers
• Strengthen your coordination on the urgent, impartial and unobstructed delivery of humanitarian assistance, including in partnership with UN entities, by all available means to all communities in need in Myanmar, including through cross-border channels, and ensure that aid is not weaponised
• Double down on your efforts to block the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions, aviation fuel and other military equipment to the junta, and to impose, strengthen and coordinate sanctions against junta members and military- and crony-owned companies and banks
• Protect Myanmar nationals in your own countries by ensuring that they are not refouled to persecution in Myanmar
• Augment your efforts to secure accountability, including through cooperation with the ICC, ICJ, IIMM and national courts exercising universal jurisdiction. The cycle of impunity is a catalyst for the repeated waves of tyranny and atrocities that have plagued Myanmar for decades. Min Aung Hlaing is terrified of being held to account for his crimes. We must therefore make every effort to secure his arrest and prosecution.
• And finally, increase your financial contributions to OHCHR’s Myanmar Team and to civil society organisations documenting and reporting on the situation in Myanmar and the junta’s violations – this is essential work on which we all rely.

To the UNCT, you are the frontline of the international community’s support to the Myanmar people, and I acknowledge that you are navigating an incredibly complex matrix of groups, communities, needs, financial shortfalls and access constraints. The sham elections no doubt have a multiplier effect.

Coordination, as you know better than I do, is vital. The recent arrival of your new Resident Coordinator is incredibly timely. I would encourage you to keep a unified front, particularly when the pressure of political engagement ramps up after the junta’s sham elections.

A unified UN approach that supports assistance to all communities in need, refuses to let aid be manipulated or weaponized, and that is prepared to speak hard truths to and about the junta is essential. Legitimization must be withheld. Lessons from the past, including those set out in the Rosenthal Report, must be kept front of mind.

Very real protection concerns also arise for UN national staff and contractors in Myanmar throughout the sham election process. Meeting their duty of care, UN entities must have clear protection policies in place that set out the actions they will take to mitigate risks of harm, to protect and support national staff and contractors – particularly persons in specific situations of vulnerability – and to provide direct assistance to persons targeted by the junta.

In the short time I have left, I would like to briefly mention SAC-M’s new briefing, entitled Myanmar’s Way Forward. In it, SAC-M addresses and debunk the junta’s sham elections. But more importantly, we present, in their own words, the vision that actors across Myanmar’s revolution have for their nation’s future.

 To inform our report, SAC-M sent a questionnaire to organisations and key individuals that represent different parts of the revolutionary landscape.

We asked about each organization about their vision for Myanmar and its key ingredients, as well as the actions they are taking and the support they need to achieve it. We also asked them about coordination, trust, the root causes of Myanmar’s conflicts, and the likely impact of the junta’s sham elections.

The responses we received showed a clear coherence around a shared vision for Myanmar’s future. Despite differences of mandate, constituency, ethnicity and geography, respondents converged around the same ideological, political and structural destination: the creation of a peaceful federal democratic Union that permanently ends military rule, guarantees equality and self-determination for all peoples, and that upholds justice, human rights and civilian governance. This vision is not presented as a reform of the existing Myanmar state, but as its fundamental rebuilding from the bottom up.

Under this revolutionary vision, the federal democratic Union is held together through equality and power-sharing, rather than domination, control and marginalisation.

Respondents presented several interlocking and overlapping ingredients that would together form the structures of an aspirational new federal democracy.

The first is a system of government, established by a new constitution, that permanently ends military rule and guarantees civilian supremacy, including over the military.

Ethnic equality and self-determination are the second ingredient. Respondents consistently pointed to the impacts of longstanding, systemic marginalisation, discrimination, and the persecution of ethnic and religious minorities. Many saw the denial and erasure of the rights and identities of ethnic minorities, driven primarily by the military and central governments, as root causes of conflict and entrenched inequality.

A third ingredient is unity and coordination among revolutionary forces, with unity framed as both a revolutionary means and an end. Respondents repeatedly referred to the need for “dialogue and collaboration” between revolutionary stakeholders, a common framework for decision-making, and an inclusive process that ensures the participation of women, youth and ethnic nationalities.

The fourth ingredient is the realisation of justice, human rights and fundamental freedoms, with gender equality also raised as a core component. Respondents stressed that democracy cannot exist beside impunity, and that accountability and truth-telling are essential for reconciliation and non-recurrence of violations and abuses. Some linked justice to the restoration of dignity.

We also asked respondents what they needed from the international community. One of their main requests was greater support for their political processes, including through increased technical assistance and formal stakeholder engagement platforms.

This sends an important message that the months ahead are not simply a choice of rejecting or accepting the junta’s sham elections. The international community also has a clear opportunity to support legitimate Myanmar-owned processes.

Myanmar is at a decisive crossroads. The junta’s plan to entrench itself through sham elections will not resolve the country’s crisis, because the junta itself is the source of that crisis.

The revolution, while still in its foundational stages, represents the only legitimate and viable way forward toward a stable and inclusive Union.

This vision is not theoretical – it is already being constructed from the ground up by a broad ecosystem of revolutionary stakeholders working collaboratively through overlapping platforms and processes to realise shared goals.

Its success will depend not only on the courage and unity of the revolution, but on whether the international community chooses to align its actions with the principles it so often professes – democracy, equality, justice, human rights and the self-determination of peoples.

Thank you.”