Spotlight on Myanmar Junta Atrocities: Daily Brief

As the military junta in Myanmar celebrated Armed Forces Day on Sunday, Human Rights Watch called on influential countries such as Japan and Australia to take stronger action against junta members and other senior military officers, as well as military-owned conglomerates. The United Nations Security Council should adopt a global arms embargo against Myanmar and refer the country situation to the International Criminal Court. Since the coup on February 1, 2021, security forces have killed over 1,600 people and detained more than 12,000. Over 500,000 people have been internally displaced and the junta is deliberately blocking aid to populations in need as a form of collective punishment. HRW has documented the military’s numerous abuses against the population that amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes.

What is there to celebrate about the upcoming football World Cup in Qatar? Not much for the migrant workers who are making it possible. On April 1, the final draw for the World Cup is set to take place in the host country, and HRW is calling on the international football federation FIFA to provide reparations for the loss of migrant workers’ lives and livelihoods in the past decade.

Did you know that campuses around the world are increasingly vulnerable to Beijing's global campaign to undermine human rights? Recent incidents at universities – including Chinese government funding of a human rights center in the Netherlands and intimidation in the United States – show these on-campus issues are not going away anytime soon. On Friday, the Australian parliament’s Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security released their long-awaited report examining foreign interference at Australian universities. During their inquiry, the committee heard evidence that Chinese government supporters threatened and intimidated pro-democracy students from China as well as university staff. The report makes strong recommendations to universities and Australia’s government to counter this state-backed harassment, which resulted in Chinese students’ self-censorship, fear, and inability to engage fully in many parts of their studies.

The Sri Lankan government has attempted to dodge growing international pressure to end abuses under its notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) by rushing cosmetic amendments through parliament. United Nations human rights experts and the European Union have also recognized the revisions do not address the law’s most abusive provisions.

The authorities in Colombia should urgently ramp up their efforts to protect the population and assist displaced people at the border with Venezuela. The UN Fact Finding Mission on Venezuela should investigate the responsibility of Venezuelan security forces for the guerrillas’ abuses. Today HRW published new research on this topic. 

And the government of the United Kingdom is failing low-income households with budget policies that will harm the rights of those hit hardest by rising living costs. Read this comment by HRW's expert Kartik Raj.