HRM urges overhaul of digital, legal systems for accountability in Myanmar

Mizzima

On 10 February, Human Rights Myanmar (HRM) published two submissions to the United Nations detailing how achieving justice in Myanmar will require moving beyond documenting physical abuses to dismantling the military’s systems of digital surveillance as well as legal repression.

HRM said that accountability mechanisms must address how the junta uses technology and the judiciary to entrench control, warning that current approaches risk failing victims of serious human rights violations.

The group made two separate submissions to UN processes outlining what it called modern frameworks for transitional justice. It argued that existing models are ill-suited to the realities of Myanmar’s post-coup repression.

One submission focused on digital repression, highlighting the dangers faced by activists and civilians who attempt to record abuses. The rights group described a “documentation trap” in which filming attacks or saving evidence can itself lead to arrest, torture or enforced disappearance.

It said the military’s control over telecommunications infrastructure and servers makes it difficult to preserve digital evidence, maintain chains of custody or prevent manipulation. HRM called for new international standards to protect civil society digital archives from seizure or destruction.

The group also advocated for what it termed “digital restoration,” including the right of survivors to have coerced confessions, biometric data and surveillance records erased from state systems. It said victims should have a right to be “digitally forgotten” by the military’s surveillance apparatus.

A second submission addressed the use of Myanmar’s legal system as a weapon since the 2021 coup. The group accuses courts of acting as extensions of the military. It called for a punitive approach to accountability and rejected amnesties for serious crimes.

The submission urged the repeal of the 1982 Citizenship Law and other discriminatory statutes, arguing that restoring citizenship and civil rights to the Rohingya and other marginalised communities is essential for meaningful justice.

“True accountability requires a complete overhaul of both the judicial and digital landscape,” HRM said, adding that civil society documentation efforts remain vital to holding perpetrators to account under international law.